The RT 451 – 455 series is constructed entirely from industrial components in order to teach control engineering in a practical manner. The use of smart sensors lays the foundations for Industry 4.0 applications. Smart sensors provide signal processing in addition to the capture of measured values thanks to integrated evaluation electronics. Besides process data, it is also possible to exchange configuration, diagnostic or statistical data. In practice this makes it faster to change over production lines, for example, or enables predictive maintenance.
The RT 455 trainer has all components required for an open and closed control loop. A pipe section, which is passed through by water as a carrier medium, serves as the controlled system. The measuring element is a smart pH sensor, which measures the pH value as the controlled variable at the outlet of the pipe section. A metering pump for adding alkaline solution and a continuous solenoid valve for varying the mass flow rate are included in the inlet of the pipe section in order to generate disturbance variables. A second smart pH sensor displays the pH values after the alkaline solution is added. A downstream metering pump serves as the actuator, which adds acid for neutralisation. Static mixers ensure the water and the added solutions are thoroughly mixed. The solution that emerges from the pipe section is collected in a product tank. For disposal, accessories are included to manually measure the pH value.
The smart sensors are connected via Modbus, which also makes it possible to calibrate the sensors via the PLC and to transmit parameters.
The trainer is controlled and operated via the integrated PLC and the touch screen or via GUNT software (external PC required). The control response is displayed in the form of a time function. The network capable software makes it possible to follow and analyse the experiments at any number of workstations via a LAN/WLAN connection to the local network.
