A comparison of process control systems for the automation of production plants

Which automation system is the right one? ControlTech Engineering AG (CTE) from Liestal compares and supports systematic decision-making. Whether in the laboratory sector, in plant engineering or in pharmaceutical production - automation systems must be precisely tailored to the respective application.

How do we at CTE go about finding out which process control system is the right one? We compare according to predefined criteria. This always involves structure and design, sufficient flexibility for every requirement, good interfaces or support for industry standards such as ISA88/MTP, ProfiNet, OPC-UA, MQTT, etc.

We pay attention to the manufacturer's support as well as to license models and scalability during installation. We know that the basic installation is always time-consuming - but the target size needs to be considered right from the start, otherwise nasty surprises and high costs can follow.

Equally important is the clear mapping of the system components (libraries, software and hardware) and the module-based approach - which we at CTE highly recommend. Only if the process control system optimally supports this approach can we work properly.

The aim is not just to copy and adapt, but to create a class-based instantiation. This allows several programmers to work on the project at the same time without influencing each other.

No major costs for small installations

Once we have evaluated the above criteria together with our customers, we look for possible solutions. In doing so, we focus on common process control systems that we use with the necessary expertise. We would like to take a closer look at the following three systems in this technical article: DeltaV, PCS 7 from Siemens and Zenon from Copa-Data.