For various reasons, many companies do not have in-house staff with knowledge of the various aspects of programming and implementing the wide variety of automation solutions on the market. This is where Global Controls really shines. Take a look at a few of our case studies below to see how we have helped other automation companies just like you.
Motion Control: The servo-controlled belt drive had to be programmed to make precise vertical moves with user-selectable speeds at all positions. The spray head also had to be controlled by the servo system to control spray pressure. For this we chose the Parker Compax3 T30 servo controller. This controller offers world-standard IEC 61131 programming. It also has analog outputs to control the spray pressure.
PLC Control: The bulk of the machine required classic PLC-type control of I/O function, timers, speeds, and E-stop control. For this we utilized the extremely versatile WAGO-I/O-SYSTEM 750. The Wago system allowed for a complete and cost effective design. Slices of two, four, or eight points of discrete I/O (AC or DC), analog I/O, etc. were stacked together to meet our needs. The Wago also programs to the IEC 61131 standard. The analog output from the Wago allowed for speed control of all fans and the in-feed conveyor.
HMI Touchscreen: To pull the whole system together and allow for complete operator control we went with a Parker CTC Interact X touchscreen. The HMI communicated with both the Wago PLC and the Parker servo controller. This allowed for “recipes” that controlled servo speeds, positions, sprayer pressures, warm up timers, and I/O event triggers.
Panel Build: The true beauty of a complete Global Controls solution is the panel build. Our intimate knowledge of all the components and how they work together allow us to design panels that optimize each component. It also allows us to deliver to our customer a complete and tested system. This particular system was built, tested, and run-off by our customer in our Global Controls shop. Last minute change requests by the customer were quickly implemented before shipment. This process is an important benefit of Global Controls work as such changes are often very difficult in the field.
IEC61131 Programming Language: This job required a solid working knowledge of not only motion and machine control, but the ability to use several key pieces of software. The Compax 3 series of drives use the IEC61131 language and the Global Controls programmers are capable of using it in a wide variety of applications.
Model T40 Drives: Most Parker houses do not properly understand the camming operations of the T40 model. Global Controls has expertise on this and all models of Parker drives.
HEDA and Profibus: Again, these are very useful and powerful systems that are simply under-utilized in the majority of Parker houses. Global Controls has a full working knowledge of both systems and how to implement and customize them to customers’ specific needs.
With all of this knowledge in their pockets, Global Controls was integral in the up-front component sizing and selection, as well as all of the motion programming. After the initial commission and debug work at the OEM’s facility, the team followed the machine all the way to the end user for final commissioning at the production facility.
ACR9000: A powerful motion controller which requires a great deal of experience to utilize to its fullest. Very few programmers understand its camming capabilities.
CTC EPX display: Global takes great pride in its ability to build functional and aesthetically pleasing screens. This particular application contained screens that allowed the user to quickly cut, copy, and edit recipes so that the user can enter a great deal of data very quickly.
VB: VisualBasic is commonly used at Global Controls. It becomes especially handy to perform little odds and ends that the HMI cannot perform out of the box. In the case here, it was vital to be able to calculate the motion data needed for the cam positions.
Global had the know-how to write both the motion code and machine control program within the ACR. More importantly, the HMI programming required was very involved as each recipe contained approximately 100 data items. With so much data, it was critical that the data entry was made as easy as possible to increase throughput. Once the data was entered, a VB application ran in the background to calculate the number of the positional parameters before downloading them to the ACR9000.
Global had the know-how to fabricate a custom board-level control (with on-board LCD display) which could read the photoeye signal and generate an encoder output signal. The customer now mounts the photoeye and takes the output to the printing unit and to the encoder emulator module as well. Now they have an encoder signal for speed indication AND the photoeye trigger all in one. It has saved them thousands of dollars on installation costs. This special module carries the customer’s own part number and is sold worldwide.