Simplified and systematic plc programming technique: A case study of burner control for thermal oil heater

This article presents a technique to simplify and systematize programmable logic controller (PLC) programming for ease of engineering. A PLC-based burner control for thermal oil heater is examined as an illustrative case study. Based on the proposed method, two example cases of PLC programming for the modified burner control by adding input devices and alarm and shutdown conditions are described. Performance of the proposed technique is demonstrated through experimental tests done by nine engineers with difference experiences for ladder-logic-based PLC programming. Experimental results show that the proposed technique provides ease of reusing and modifying the existing ladder logic code and saving of time for writing the programs.