AUTOMATION OF EQUIPMENT FOR PAPER CONVERT ING

The beginnings of electronic automation,with microprocessor units deve loped by the user-firms themselves, are, by now, almost twenty years i n the past. Constantly new hard and software developments produced sin gle and special functions, which constributed to the efficiency and pr oduction increases oi the machines, however they worked in a relativel y individual manner in whatever machine they were installed. After PCs came into being, ii became possible to have a standard control surfac e for the various functions. The idea of standardization of the hardwa re becoming increasingly more attractive led to completely new automat ion structures when bus-systems were introduced for the sensor-/actuat or sections, The PC becomes a single, central piece of hardware, indep endent from its manufacturer per forming the automation and visualizat ion functions and connected directly to the machine via the sensor-/ac tuator bus. Only the two-term control units is left in position as a p iece of manufacturer-dependent hardware and is, step by step, also bei ng connected via a bus-system with decentralised inputs and outputs. T he automation concept becomes more standardized for greatly differing machines. Cables or long distance leads and possible diagnosis become more and more simplified, maintenance and servicing also gain from thi s development. In the future we can expect further simplification thro ugh integration of the two-term control in the existing PC.