Control Engineering

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Like the phoenix, the Make2Pack Proof of Concept Prototype rises again (part 2)!
November 5, 2007

The transport system mentioned in the prior post (below) consists of three physical component types:

1. Packing Tank: This equipment is part of the Batch & Continuous making areas. It contains dried glue that is to be packed into sealed pouches. It is on load cells and, for the purpose of the transport system, will use a Loss-In-Weight (LIW) function as described by the M2P “MATERIAL TRANSFER EQUIPMENT MODULES” document.

2. Transport Conveyor: There can be any number of transport conveyors as needed. For the purpose of this prototype, there are at least two. The information that details the equipment that makes up a conveyor is attached.

Note that all conveyors function the same (per the attached detailed conveyor functional description), but there may be subtle differences in some of the sensing equipment.

Each conveyor has a sensor at the beginning of the conveyor and another at the end that detects transport totes.

Each has a sensor that detects motion of the drive with a pulsating digital signal; this signal is used to provide feedback to the motor that it is running. Each has a safety sensor that indicates the access cover is open.

Each has a motor that causes the conveyor to move, the functional requirement of the automation that controls the motor is as defined in the “M2P DigitalDevice.” Each Conveyor can transport in a forward and reverse direction. 

[Scroll down. There's more....]

Figure 2: Picture of Transport System

3. FFS Supply system: This can be a manual system that moves the tote to the designated machine. It can also be an automated system that will take the tote from the transport conveyor and then move it to the machine.

Each component will use the PackML manager to direct its behavior as defined in the attached functional descriptions. 

There is a supervisory PackML that will coordinate all the equipment using standard Pack-Tags.

Each Unit/Machine will follow a control hierarchy as described in the WBF Make2Pack March 2006 report and represented in Figure 1.
 
The numbers of levels are determined by the applications developers. The communications methods are defined in the WBF & PackML Version 3 reports and modified as necessary.

The supervisory system will have the ability to monitor and command all automation components in a similar manor independent of what control platform they reside on. The structure and relationships of the various control components are represented in Figure 3.

Figure 4 represents the entire manufacturing process which includes a batch process represented in Figure 5 and a continuous process represented in Figure 6. 

The packaging equipment is extensible as shown in figure 4, and a Form fill Seal machine is represented in Figure 7.

Suggestions or questions? Use the comment tools provided here.

Make2Pack provides 
more information 
on batch models, machine models, continuous models in the 
Technical Information area of its Web site.

And you can scroll down...
 
.... just a little more to see Figure 4, previously mentioned. 

The prior post below (Part 1), has Figure 1. 

Thanks....

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Posted by David Chappell on November 5, 2007 | Comments (0)