A packaging equipment OEM designed a new machine for packaging fluorescent bulbs, but this was no ordinary machine. The machine needed to be flexible enough to package bulbs ranging from 24” to 96” in length. On top of that, it needed to make both one and two-packs of bulbs. All of this was designed in one 50 foot long machine that was destined for a spot in one of the world’s largest bulb manufacturing facilities. It looked great on paper, but how were they going to get it to work. The programming and control requirements were way more than they could handle alone. They decided to seek assistance from their friends over at Global Controls.
In the end, the design required 11 axes of servo motors, 8 of which needed to have their own unique cam profile. All 8 axes would need to be tied to a single master encoder while the other 3 axes would be simple point-to-point motion for setup. All well and good, but in order to accommodate the wide range of bulb sizes, the motion profile for every axis would need to be unique so they could be adjusted independently. Tough, but Global Controls had this one figured out.
In order to allow for the required flexibility, all 11 axes would need to be connected to the system PLC so they could receive part setup information. This posed two problems: 1) how to make it so all of the axes could follow the same master encoder and 2) how to get part setup data to each of the axes.
Luckily, Global had the perfect tool for the job. The Parker Compax 3 series of drives were an excellent fit since they offer a high-speed HEDA bus network for transferring positional information from a master encoder to all the drives in the system. This solved the problem of allowing all of the cammed axes to see the master encoder.
As for the part setup information, all of the drives were designed with their own Profibus connection to the main system PLC. This allows all of the drives to receive part setup information from the PLC independently.
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.