Together with its wide-ranging accessory components, the RT 450 base module provides a modular, fully flexible and open-design system for learning the fundamentals of process automation by means of experimentation. The accessory components are pre-installed on panels. The base module provides an extensive frame for quick and safe mounting of the components required for the various experiments. It includes a water supply with tank and pump, a switch cabinet for power supply as well as connections, maintenance units, and a pressure regulator for an external compressed air supply.

  Connecting up the measuring and control cables and the process lines, as well as connection to the electricity supply, form key elements of the programme of exercises. Alongside the purely systematic technical learning content involved, key aspects of the teaching goals are pre-planning, modification, testing, commissioning and optimisation.

  Optimal learning is achieved when two or three students work together on a training system as a group.

  An instrumentation and control software (RT 450.40) with an interface module for Profibus DP (RT 450.41) is available as an accessory. This enables the key process variables to be displayed and control functions to be executed.

  The well-structured instructional material sets out the fundamentals and provides a step-by-step guide through the experiments.

Together with accessory components, the following learning content and exercises are possible
- planning and construction of different process

  applications
- planning and construction of different automation

  solutions for the control systems
- familiarisation with the design, function and

  behaviour of industrial automation components,

  such as controllers, PLCs, actuators and

  measuring devices
- commissioning and optimisation of automated

  process applications
- making process connections (via pipes/hoses),

  connecting up the electricity supply and the

  instrumentation and control components
- fundamentals of the use of data acquisition,

  system control and parameter setting using the

  RT 450.40 software