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End of Line Confectionary Packaging Machine

Posted in Food and Beverage, HMI and SCADA, Manufacturing Automation and Intelligence, Packaging Machinery Programming

Summary

DMC implemented a high speed motion control application that controls the process of packaging confectionary products into their final outermost wrapper. The application controls a machine employing five servo axes, four linear motors, six analog PID-controlled heating elements, and a sensor-based registration system.

Solution

The control PLC program in combination with the ELAU motion control program form a complete solution for controlling the wrapping machine. Stacks of product enter the machine on a servo-controlled infeed conveyor which changes speed based on the detected rate of input product. Linear motors then push the products one at a time through a cam-driven wrapping drum. Film is dropped down from a geared draw roll servo and cut by an intelligent registration-adjusted slicing axis. Then the package is pushed onto a heated conveyor which seals the film around the product as it exits the machine.

Customer Benefits

  • Enables faster production with an output of up to 50% faster than previous machine
  • Reduces machine setup time with fast-acting automatic registration system.
  • Vastly reduces time spent pinpointing hardware problems through intuitive Human Machine Interface (HMI).
  • Complete configuration options on HMI improve future expandability by allowing multiple products to run on same production line with no software change

Technologies

  • Elau Motion Control
    • EPAS-4 Software
      • Electronic Gearing
      • Electronic Camming
      • Registration algorithm
    • iSH Servos
  • Siemens
    • S7 PLC
      • Simatic Manager Step 7 Software
        • SCL
        • Ladder
    • Simatic Touchpanel
    • WinCC Flexible Programming Software
  • S7 Safety IO
  • Profibus Communications
  • LinMot Linear Servos
    • LinMot Talk configuration software