Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Joachim Rahn <[email protected]> · Tue, 5 Apr 2016 11:06:47 +0200

Hi Florian,

it's common to combine the functionality of controlling the valves with
some kind of interlock functionality.
If some vacuum sensors in a vacuum sector report bad conditions the valves
of the vacuum sector should be closed as fast as possible to prevent the venting
of larger areas.
This job should be done in a safe manner.

PLCs are available as Safety-PLCs and a therefore good choice to do this job.

Cheers,
Joachim

On 05.04.2016 09:52, Florian Feldbauer wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
> I'm working with EPICS now for several years to develop parts of the Detector Control System for
> the PANDA experiment.
> For our luminosity detector we need to control a small vacuum system.
> I had a look at various talks from EPICS meetings to see, how others are building their control systems
> and I have a question concerning this:
> All the systems I have seen are using PLCs to control the valves of the system.
> 
> What is the advantage of a PLC for controlling the valves?
> Why not using an EPICS IOC for direct control running on a realtime system?
> 
> I never worked on vacuum systems before, and our vacuum workshop here at Mainz
> could not help me with this question.
> 
> Many thanks in advance for the help!
> 
>   Florian
> 

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System