Control.com - Nerds in Control

Hi all,
Can any one tell if there is an industry best practice on the most effecient and economic platform for implementing air compressor control i.e. DCS or PLC system. What are your thoughts? Thanks...

Muhammad

Hi, well if you already have plc or a dcs then I would say go with what you have to keep it simple, but if you are starting out with nothing then the plc will handle the job and be be more economical, now if you are in a plant and want to share this information with your plant dcs for trips or alarms then look at some remote i/o for your system.

ortonsd@bellsouth.net

If the air compressors are centrifugal type, you need anti-surge, performance and load-sharing controls. Typically, the compressor vendor will have their own system. Using a DCS or a regular PLC surge-control applications is not the most efficient way to control the compressors.

For reciprocating compressors, the control logic is fairly simple. Standard off-the-shelf PLCs can do this job. If the DCS supports sequencing and logic functions, it can be implemented there. There is no industry-wide standard on this. Each user may have their own policies.

The short answer would be; if the compressor is relatively low horsepower so that control is a simple surge line/bypass... then either PLC or DCS is likely ok depending on your plant standard. However, for high power units you probably want to at least evaluate compressor specific controllers such as from CCC and others.

John Catch
www.inflowinc.com