JPH08147005A - Plant maintenance device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To save the time and labor for maintenance operation by providing a portable maintenance tool which is connected to a connector which is present nearby a necessary place and accesses a process computer through a transmission equipment to execute a maintenance program. CONSTITUTION: A connection station 8 to which the process computer 1 and a programmable controller 5 are connected is installed on a transmission line 7. This connection station 8 is installed in the necessary place, a stand-by connection station 8' is installed nearby the connection station 8, and the connector 10 for connecting an easy-to-carry small-sized computer like a notebook type computer and a lap-top type computer as the maintenance tool 9 is installed in the stand-by connection station 8'. Consequently, the time and labor required for the maintenance operation can be saved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plant maintenance device in a plant monitoring control device using a transmission device such as a LAN.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Due to the rapid development of program supervisory control technology in recent years, a LAN of a plant supervisory control is installed between a process computer as a host computer installed in a supervisory center and a programmable controller installed in a proper place on the plant site. Connect with a transmission device like
Each programmable controller is connected to an electric motor and other drive devices and sensors to control the start / stop of them, fetch various necessary signals, control the operation of the plant equipment under its control and monitor its operation, and process computer side In such a system, a system that monitors the operating status of the entire plant by transmitting data with each programmable controller is widely adopted.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional plant monitoring and controlling system, the system itself is technically sophisticated and complicated, so that it is suitable when an abnormality occurs in any of the devices. It is difficult for a skilled technician to perform maintenance. This is particularly noticeable when a failure occurs in an electric circuit component, which requires a long time for maintenance and a long time for restoration.

Therefore, recently, an expert system for maintenance of electric circuit parts has been developed, and it has become possible to execute appropriate maintenance by utilizing maintenance rules.

However, the conventional plant maintenance device using such an expert system is
Expert systems can only be serviced at specific locations, such as the electrical room, and multiple technicians can perform maintenance tasks while maintaining contact between the site and the particular location where the expert system can be serviced. Or, if it is one person, it is necessary to go back and forth between the place where the expert system is located and the site several times to perform the maintenance work, and there is a problem that it takes time and labor to recover.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional problems, and a maintenance engineer executes a maintenance program connected to a process computer from near a place where work is required to perform a necessary maintenance manual. It is an object of the present invention to provide a plant maintenance apparatus that can take out a plant and perform maintenance work according to it and reduce the time and labor required for the maintenance work.

[0007]

A plant maintenance apparatus according to the invention of claim 1 drives a process computer having a maintenance program, a programmable controller, and a controlled plant equipment which is operation-controlled by the programmable controller and is connected thereto. Drive device, a transmission device for connecting the process computer and the programmable controller to mutually transmit information between them, a connector installed at a plurality of places on the transmission device, and a necessary device. A portable maintenance tool that is connected to the connector existing near a place and that accesses the process computer through the transmission device to execute the maintenance program.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the plant maintenance apparatus according to the first aspect, the maintenance program of the process computer uses a maintenance expert system.

[0009]

According to the plant maintenance apparatus of the invention of claim 1, when the maintenance of any of the plant equipment to be controlled becomes necessary, the plant maintenance equipment is connected to the connector installed near the programmable controller to which the plant equipment is connected. Connect the maintenance tool, access the central process computer via the transmission device, execute the maintenance program registered there,
Take out the information required for maintenance and perform maintenance work accordingly.

As a result, the information required for the maintenance can be taken out near the site requiring the maintenance and the maintenance can be performed, and the maintenance can be performed efficiently.

In the plant maintenance apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the maintenance program of the process computer uses the maintenance expert system, it is possible to take out appropriate maintenance information at the site and efficiently perform appropriate maintenance work. it can.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a plant monitoring control system used in an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 shows the internal configuration of a maintenance tool, and FIG. 3 shows the internal configuration of a computer.

First, the configuration of the plant monitoring control system will be described with reference to FIG. 1. The plant monitoring control system is installed in a central monitoring room and is installed in a proper place between a process computer 1 for monitoring the operating status of the controlled plant and a controlled plant 2. A programmable controller 5 that controls the operation of process devices such as the electric motor 3, sensors, and switches 4, a drive device 6 that is driven by the programmable controller 5 and drives the electric motor 3, data between the process computer 1 and each programmable controller 5. A transmission line 7 such as a LAN for transmission, and a connection station 8 installed on the transmission line 7 for connecting the process computer 1 and the programmable controller 5 are provided.

The connection station 8 is installed in a proper place, and a spare connection station 8'is prepared near the connection station 8 to which each programmable controller 5 requiring maintenance is connected. The spare connection station 8'is provided with a connector 10 for connecting a portable computer such as a notebook computer or a laptop computer, which will be described later, as the maintenance tool 9.

The process computer 1 monitors and controls the entire plant 2 to be controlled, accumulates and analyzes various data sent from each programmable controller 5 via the transmission line 7, and determines the operating states of each part of the plant and each device. In addition, when an abnormality occurs in any of the devices, an alarm is generated to notify the operator, and the operator inputs a necessary command to transmit the signal to the corresponding programmable controller 5 via the transmission line 7. And performs various operations. In this embodiment, a maintenance expert system 11 is further registered in the process computer 1 as a maintenance program.

The configuration of this process computer 1 is shown in FIG.
It will be described based on. A plant control program execution unit 1a that executes normal plant monitoring control, and a maintenance program execution unit 1 that executes a maintenance program
b, a transmission control unit 1c for transmitting / receiving data to / from the transmission line 7, a plant control program file, a maintenance rule file of an expert system as a maintenance program, a maintenance manual file, and other necessary files such as a plant monitoring history file. The storage device 1d for saving is provided.

As shown in FIG. 3, the maintenance tool 9 includes an input unit 9a for performing an input operation, an input control unit 9b for processing an input signal from the input unit 9a, maintenance manual data, maintenance rule data, and the like. Maintenance file reading section 9c for reading out the maintenance file, display section 9d, display control section 9e for controlling display of this display section 9d, transmission control for performing data transmission with the process computer 1 via the transmission line 7. Part 9f, connector 1 of spare connection station 8 '
A connector 9g for connecting with 0 is provided.

Next, the operation of the plant maintenance device having the above configuration will be described. At the time of normal plant monitoring control, the programmable controller 5 acts on the plant equipments 3 and 4 under its control to control its operation,
It also receives signals from various sensors and automatically controls various controlled variables. Then, the operating state data is periodically transmitted to the process computer 1 via the transmission line 7.

On the process computer 1 side, various received data are stored in the storage device 1d, and various data are displayed on the display unit 9d.

If any abnormality occurs and maintenance work is required, the location of the abnormality can be known from the display on the display unit 9d of the process computer 1, and the engineer will go to the site. When it arrives at the site where the abnormality has occurred, the connector 9g of the maintenance tool 9 is connected to the connector 10 of the spare connection station 8'installed near the programmable controller 5 that handles the plant equipment in which the abnormality has occurred.

Then, the input section 9a is operated to activate the maintenance file reading section 9c, and the process computer 1 is accessed to access the maintenance program executing section 1b.
To start. In the process computer 1, when the maintenance program execution unit 1b is activated, the storage device 1d
You can read the maintenance manual file and maintenance rule file by accessing.

Therefore, by operating the input unit 9a of the maintenance tool 9 to input a maintenance manual file read command or a maintenance expert system start command, the maintenance file read unit 9c sends a process computer via the transmission line 7. A necessary command is given to the maintenance program execution unit 1b of No. 1 to read the corresponding maintenance manual data and start the expert system.

When the command from the maintenance tool 9 is a maintenance manual read command, the maintenance program execution unit 1b of the process computer 1 transmits the read maintenance manual data to the maintenance tool 9 side, and the maintenance tool 9 If necessary maintenance manual data is sent from the 9 side, it is displayed on the display section 9d. Therefore, the engineer performs necessary maintenance work while looking at the display on the display unit 9d.

Maintenance expert system 1
1 is used, the maintenance tool 9 serves as an input unit and a display unit, the maintenance program execution unit 1b of the process computer 1 serves as an expert system execution unit, and the technician views the operation guide displayed on the display unit 9d. While operating the input unit 9a, the abnormal state information necessary for inference is input, and the maintenance program execution unit 1b performs inference in response to the information, and the maintenance rule specifies the abnormal device, causes the abnormalities, and performs necessary maintenance. Information is taken out and transmitted to the maintenance tool 9 side. Then, the maintenance tool 9 displays the received inference result on the display unit 9d, and the technician executes the necessary maintenance work by looking at this.

The maintenance rules used in this maintenance expert system differ depending on the type of plant, and it is necessary to gradually build a knowledge base for each site. For example, there are the following.

Rule 1: If the motor trips due to overcurrent, then the motor is overloaded. Rule 2: If the motor is overloaded, the acceleration / deceleration rate is too high. Rule 3: If the acceleration / deceleration rate is too high, increase the acceleration / deceleration rates of other motors. Rule 4: If the transformer burns out, check the overcurrent history of the motors connected to the transformer.

Therefore, when an accident occurs in which a certain transformer is burnt out, it goes to the site where the transformer is installed and a spare connection station 8 prepared nearby.
The connector 10 of the maintenance tool 9
g is connected and the maintenance tool 9 is started. Then, the process computer 1 is called to activate the maintenance program execution unit 1b and execute the expert system 11.

Then, if the fact that a specific transformer is burned is input from the maintenance tool 9 side as the antecedent part,
According to the rule 4, the maintenance work for checking the overcurrent history of the electric motor group can be performed. Then, as a result of this check, if the motor in which the overcurrent has flown can be identified, if the next condition is input that the overcurrent has flown in that motor, then the rules 1 to 3 are inferred sequentially. Then, as the final maintenance work, the work of adjusting the acceleration / deceleration rates of other electric motors connected to the same transformer can be performed from Rule 3 as the final maintenance work.

In these maintenance operations, since a spare connection station 8'for connecting the maintenance tool 9 is prepared near each programmable controller 5 or in another proper place, the maintenance engineer can perform work at the site where the abnormality occurs. By connecting the maintenance tool 9 to the spare connection station 8'installed nearby, it becomes possible to read the manual and maintenance work instructions necessary for the maintenance work, and to carry out the maintenance work with reference to them. The maintenance work can be performed efficiently.

In the above embodiment, the maintenance program execution unit 1b uses the expert system. However, the plant computer is simply specified from the maintenance manual file and the maintenance manual data for the device is read out by the process computer 1 side. It is also possible to have a system configuration having only the function of displaying on the maintenance tool 9.

[0031]

As described above, according to the invention of claim 1,
When maintenance of any of the plant equipment to be controlled becomes necessary, connect the maintenance tool to the connector installed near the programmable controller to which the plant equipment is connected, and from there, centralize it via the transmission device. I access the process computer of the machine, execute the maintenance program registered there, retrieve the information necessary for maintenance, and perform the maintenance work according to it, so maintenance near the site requiring maintenance work You can take out the necessary information for maintenance work.
Maintenance work can be performed efficiently.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the maintenance program of the process computer uses the maintenance expert system, it is possible to take out appropriate maintenance information at the site and perform appropriate maintenance work efficiently.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a process computer of the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a maintenance tool of the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Process Computer 1a Plant Control Program Execution Unit 1b Maintenance Program Execution Unit 1c Transmission Control Unit 1d Storage Device 2 Plant 3 Electric Motor 4 Switch 5 Programmable Controller 6 Drive Device 7 Transmission Line 8 Connection Station 8'Spare Connection Station 9 Maintenance Tool 9a Input Part 9b Input control part 9c Maintenance file reading part 9d Display part 9e Display control part 9f Transmission control part 9g Connector 10 Connector 11 Maintenance expert system

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A process computer on which a maintenance program is installed, a programmable controller, a drive device that drives the controlled plant equipment that is operation-controlled by the programmable controller, and is connected to the process computer and the programmable controller. , A transmission device for mutually transmitting information between them, a connector installed at a plurality of locations on the transmission device, and the transmission device connected to the connector present near a necessary place, A plant maintenance device comprising a portable maintenance tool for accessing the process computer through the device to execute the maintenance program. 2. The plant maintenance apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the maintenance program for the process computer uses a maintenance expert system.