Friday, April 8, 2011

Positronic Industries Uses Parker ACR9600 for Complete Machine Control

By Tanner Davignon

Positronic Industries is a global supplier of connector solutions of all sizes for all markets.  Dustin Davenport, Manufacturing Engineer, was recently faced with the challenge of designing a machine that painted stripes on individual pins, similar to resistor codes.
The end result.


There are two pins sizes, one is 0.060 inches in diameter, and the second is 0.070 inches in diameter, and both pins measure approximately .5 inches in length.  Each pin requires three stripes; two of the stripes are 0.005 inches thick, with the third stripe being 0.010 inches thick.  The machine is fed pins from a vibratory bowl, and placed in 1 of 10 ‘stations’ located around the edge of a central wheel.

Due to the pneumatics involved with moving pins in and out of stations, along with six fiber optic sensors to make sure the stripes are accurately placed, Dustin needed a PLC style solution to process all of the I/O points.  Servo and stepper motors were also needed to handle all of the movement from the various axis throughout the machine.
The machine



Rather than having a separate PLC and motion controller, Dustin used the ACR9600 to control 1 servo axis and a Bayside gearbox (to drive main wheel), 8 stepper axis (for paint applicators and movement of pins), and Parker I/O to bring the various signals into the controller.  This saved on machine cost, and allowed Dustin to customize the I/O count specifically for this application.  With the IEC-611311 programming language of the 9600, this is truly a single controller solution to a very complex application.

The panel

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