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Control speed of a packaging machine

Control speed of a packaging machine

Control speed of a packaging machine

(OP)
Hey all,

I am designing a packaging machine with my father in law to pack dry products (rice, beans, sugar etc..)

The general idea is this:

This packaging machine will on top of a rotational head to measure the contents of each bag and can be changed my changing the hight of two tubes that can slide into each-other.

The make plastic bags for the material we draw the plastic packaging around a tube to be vertically and horizontally glued.
This whole thing will be controlled by a PLC.

Speed should beable to get controlled programatically by the PLC and a small LCD display.

The process will simplified go like this:

0) Wait for new material
1) detect that new material is in the container.
3) material falls in the bag
4) continue to next package (stepper motors will pull plastic down)
5) glue bottom (top of the filled bag)
6) start at 1)

I have two questions:

1) The motors on top that will rotate the rotational head will be design to run at a variable constant speed.
Q: What type of engine would I expect here? I was thinking about a 3-phase induction motor controlled by a VFD. This way I can control the speed and let it run constantly. Some sensor let me know it's position to control the timing for the packing glue mechanism and heat-knife.

2) To pull my plastic down we will pull a flat plastic around a tube and glue them vertically.
A sensor on the package will know where each package begins so we know where to cut/glue the top and bottom of each package.

To pull the plastic down I was thinking to use two large stepper motors on each side of the tube on which we attach two 'hollow' wheels that fit nice around the tub with the plastic packaging material in between.

The stepper motors will allow me to pull the plastic down accurately and precise I can stop and start (during glue time the plastic cannot move), so we could even change bag hight if we want to by means of PLC changes. Would using a stepper motor be a good choice?


Regards,
Ries

RE: Control speed of a packaging machine

Stepper motors are not a bad idea but you will need to use stepper drivers to have a PLC control them, as you don't just turn them on/off you have to send phased power pulses to them.

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com

RE: Control speed of a packaging machine

I'd also try to use one stepper as synchronizing them will add complexity.

Keith Cress
kcress - http://www.flaminsystems.com

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