Push buttons and their widely used applications across industries

Author: Atin Chhabra Schneider Electric Blog

Push buttons are simple power controlling switches of a machine or equipment. These are usually metal or thermoplastic switches that are designed to grant easy access to the operator. The motive of electric circuits is that the electricity must be able to flow uninterrupted through the various wires and components. However, circuits that are complete all the time aren’t as useful as ones that work only when we want them to.

The push buttons are switches that are either hidden inside machinery or plugged where we can see and use them. The push button switches are primarily of two types,  momentary and non-momentary. These switches are generally used in calculators, push-button telephones, kitchen appliances, magnetic locks and various other mechanical and electronic devices used either in homes or industries.

The construct of the push button is such that it can accommodate a human finger or thumb to turn on or off the system easily. For machinery with complex operations and multiple buttons, there are donations for different colours of the push button. This helps the machine operator to recognise what operation the switch is bound to perform easily. Though there are no set guidelines for the colour of the button, some of them are common across various industries. For instance, red button generally s as the power button, i.e. to start or abort any operation, yellow denotes pause and green denotes resuming operations.

With the advent of internet of things in the computational technology, industries have widely empowered their operation. The integration of softwares with the hardware components like switch buttons help in the better control and information-driven decisions. Machine control system has not only brought adequate energy saving options but also as it helped in correcting human error factor in industrial operations.

The devices or products in the advanced process control system address all aspects of advanced process control and optimisation from improving regulatory loop control to globally optimising the entire process using a unique layered approach. This model allows new technologies to be easily added at any time to a common platform that meets optimisation objectives without compromising on future opportunities to improve business performance.

The extended control granted by push buttons need a scope of operation. The future scenario might not allow manual operations as of now, as enabled by push buttons. Therefore, the workforce shall be brought in touch with automation training as well.