Manufacturers active in sectors such as industrial refrigeration, food and beverage or in the realization of machines such as boilers, furnaces, autoclaves and extruders, need control systems including PID control of process loops, set point programming, sequence control of pumps and valves commands, logics, alarms
The Programmable Automation Controller includes all the above-mentioned functionalities into its design. The use of a PAC allows machine manufacturers to avoid to select, buy and connect different equipment such as I/O modules, PLCs, single loop or multi loop controllers, network adaptors
Based on many years of successful production of control and automation products for the process and manufacturing industries, Ascon is now changing the future of the control of machines and medium size plants with an entirely new and innovative compact controller called Sigma microPAC that simplifies the control issue
Sigma microPAC is a small but powerful programmable automation controller with on-board I/Os and a capability of up to 12 Analogue I/Os plus 80 Digital I/Os. The CPU is 32 bit ARM with 4 MB flash memory, 16MB RAM memory and 64KB retentive memory
Sigma microPAC adds advanced PID loop control with easy and quick management of logic control
Programming uses the six languages, IEC 61131-3 compliant software aided by the Ascon’s libraries with a large selection of function blocks, templates and multitasking functions
The use of standard communications protocols allows an easy integration with remote control/assistance devices
An Ethernet port with Modbus TCP protocol is available for connection to HMIs and SCADAs for configuration, programming and supervision. One RS485 plus one RS485/RS232 ports are available with Modbus RTU protocol (master/slave) and ASCII for further expansions, for connection to WEB SCADAs and to GSM/GPRS/UMTS modems
Advantages of Sigma microPAC include the capability to offer functionalities normally available only in more complex and expensive systems such as PLCs and PC based systems. Extra components, required by PLCs to do the job, can be eliminated, panel dimensions, costs of hardware and software development, integration can be reduced
Most typical applications solved are preservation cells, heating stations, industrial boilers, kilns and painting booths. Here the control of variables such as temperature, humidity, pressure and flow, has an essential role to obtain the best performance of the machine