I've done both PLC & DCS programming over the years, doing both ladder and function block programming, but I've never been steered to using SFCs for programming, and, in fact, don't know much about it.
Can anyone tell me what's the usefulness of SFCs? Is SFC used pretty much for batch programming and/or operations that like machining?
They are used for machine sequencing. Basic a SFC is a flow chart made of steps and transitions. The steps have actions. The programs waits at a step until the transition is true and then the program goes to the next step. This makes machine sequencing easy and efficient because instead of scanning the whole program like a PLC, only the current step and transition are executed.
Note is is possible to have many SFC flow charts executing at the same time. This effectively makes the SFC multitasking.
"They are used for machine sequencing. " And more, for example S88 Phase logic. It is important to remember that SFC is just one of many programming methods that work together. For example an SFC step may enable lower level logic that is then programmed in ladder, similarly with transitions. Read more here
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They are used for machine sequencing. Basic a SFC is a flow chart made of steps and transitions. The steps have actions. The programs waits at a step until the transition is true and then the program goes to the next step. This makes machine sequencing easy and efficient because instead of scanning the whole program like a PLC, only the current step and transition are executed.
Note is is possible to have many SFC flow charts executing at the same time. This effectively makes the SFC multitasking.
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