Increasing Productivity With Industrial Automation
Since the dawn of the industry, man has seen the need to find a flexible, agile and safe way to perform unhealthy, repetitive and dangerous activities in a reliable and standardized way. It is from this point that the technology known as industrial automation was born, in the early 1950s.
It is worth remembering that since the 18th century the industry was advancing in England with the 1st Industrial Revolution, with its steam engines and, subsequently, with the mechanization process, which became known as the 2nd Industrial Revolution. Even so, the activities were still carried out by human hands, in addition to the lack of security, the rates of rework and unproductiveness were high, which delayed progress. It was necessary for man to evolve in relation to his way of making things. At that time, certain activities did not require direct contact and manufacturing.
Then, the 3rd Industrial Revolution was born. With the advent of electronics, electronic components, industrial computers and communication networks appear, which definitively transformed industry and the means of production.
Automation And Our Society
Society started to have standardized, efficient and cheaper products, and the industry has, in fact, gained automation, becoming more flexible and productive with industrial robots. With programmable machines that brought benefits such as agility, precision and safety, automation has continued to evolve in several fields, from pocket calculators to rockets and space probes. The automation concept applies to everything.
But the evolution is continuous. These machines were not yet able to make decisions, they just fulfilled the routines that were programmed to execute. It is then that the 4th revolution takes place. With it, fully automated assembly lines operate, for example, in automobile factories; handling chemicals; counting, selecting and classifying products on conveyors; packing, packaging and shipping in the logistics sectors. In infinite applications, industrial automation is active, and a new concept gains popularity.
