This project involves the study of the different stages required to face the automatization of a manufacturing process by means of PLCs. Starting from the automation architecture available at the automatization laboratory from the ESEIAAT school of UPC, Terrassa campus, an application based on flexible automation is defined. This application includes the automation process based on the automatic activation of a series conveyor belts. Chapter one provides more detailed information about the project background and motivation. The automation laboratory is divided into four zones or areas, the so called, Profibus zone, CAN zone, ASI zone and, finally Ethernet zone, due to the industrial bus used in each of them. Two of these areas are used within this project, specifically, the Profibus and the CAN areas. Within these zones, plates can be transported or moved by a set of conveyor belts. The whole industrial environment and its components is described in chapter two. It is a theoretical description that provides the necessary information before moving on to the next phase. From the automation programming point of view, this project starts from an initial version including basic movements over the Profibus zone. The program has been analysed during the first stages of this project identifying that complex structures with unclear naming of variables were present in the structure. The initial objective was, then, to develop a program to improve the movements and make them more efficient and with enhanced functionalities including a proper structure and proper naming for the variables. In this regard, once the plates are moved smoothly through the zones, a specific application is conceived and defined. This gives a purpose to the industrial setup and the corresponding movements. Creating a block diagram, gives a better idea to realize the application. All this is part of the automation proposal of the project which can be found in the third chapter. Finally, chapter four describes the final phase of the automation process study: the realization and validation of the application. The defined process uses the conveyor belts to sort numbered plates into the correct order for an eventual posterior manufacturing process. Therefore, some requirements, such as communication between PLCs, has to be considered. Also, methods and solutions need to be developed to make the process as simple as possible to allow posterior updates. The conclusion is presented in the final chapter to see whether all objectives have been achieved.

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