Video: Example servo solution for 'Flow Wrapping'
This example shows how the wrapping process can be synchronized to a batch of products (e.g. confectionery) on a conveyor.
The fast latch functionality of ABB motion products is used to capture the position of the product in relation to a registration mark on the wrapping material. This 'fast latch' is triggered when the registration mark passes a registration sensor.
From this captured position the system will synchronise product, film and sealing jaws to ensue each product is wrapped and sealed with printed wrapping correctly positioned. The motion used to achieve this is electronic gearing of film and product, with the jaws of the example above controlled using CAM or sequence of FLY* segments to create synchronous lateral movement with the film. For rotational jaws speed is adapted to meet the next seal point, which is faster for short lengths and slower for long lengths.
FLY segments are a special feature of Mint controllers providing a means of creating geared segmented motion of constant acceleration. An application note covering this topic viewed here
Simpler solutions
Simpler systems can use a 'discontinuous' motion, essentially indexing film and product then sealing and cutting. This type of solutions is typically simpler, lower cost and inherently lower throughput and easily achieved with stepper drives or low power servo drives and a simple controller.
Typical technology demands include:
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| Film unwind and tension control |
Often handled by simple mechanical tension control or servo driven solutions depending on material and machine dynamics. |
| Product spacing / flight synchronisation |
In some systems this is managed by simple accumulator and release gate timed to provide required spacing. Or product phasing belts to take erratically spaced product and phase to a flighted belt system as shown here |
| Film forming and seam sealing |
Stepper or servo driven rollers draw film and seal the seam of the wrapping film, effectively creating a tube |
| Simple mechanical seal/crimp or complex continuous seal/crimp servo driven mechanisms |
Control can be simple timed pulses for pneumatic control or more complex motion control of servo driven jaws |
| Registration control for printed materials |
Fast registration inputs of our drives and controllers latch position of an axis, EVENT driven response then allows for evaluation of valid print detection, calculation of compensation required and triggering of correction motion. |
| Electronic gearing and software cams motion |
Standard motion features of our Mint controllers andAC500 PLC with PLCopen |
| Recipe storage for rapid reconfiguration |
CP600 HMI panels feature recipe storage and handling as standard |
| Upstream networking to factory network |
Ethernet controllers create the benefit of upstream factory network connectivity for production metrics or maintenance access. |
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Related motion features :
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Homing to a datum (which can be avoided using motors with absolute feedback reducing start-up time)
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Fast latch inputs feature on our drives and motion controllers and ensure precise crimp / seal operation, to the printed material. |
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Smooth change of target position on the fly to correct final position of the film feed and jaw motion |
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CAM motion can be used for continuous smooth motion electronically geared to material feed. CAMs can be downloaded, stored, and modified on demand. |
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Electronic geared motion including CAM, virtual clutch, advance / retard corrections to synchronize axes as required |
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FLY segments provide constant acceleration geared motion segments and can be used for crimp motion in continuous feed machines as a simpler alternative to complex CAMs |
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Solutions for these machine types include:
Select or browse possible solutions below for more detail:
- Analog / Stepper
solution
- Ethernet motion
solution
- PLCopen
motion solution
Simple solutions can be achieved using a combination of stepper drives and / or analog controlled drives. NextMove ESB-2 can provide scalable solutions in this category with its mix of axis interfaces and features.
- NextMove ESB-2 is capable of controlling 7 axes in total
- Mix up to 3 x analog demand drives and 4 x stepper axes such as MicroFlex and DSM steppers
- IO can be expanded using CANopen
- Registration for printed material can be handled by the 4 x high speed latch inputs of the NextMove controller
- If an upstream Ethernet connection is required for a networked machine, consider using NextMove e100 which is also capable of analog servo and stepper control.
- MINT programs can be ported to NextMove e100 or the plug-in MINT controller for MotiFlex drives offering different hardware solutions for different machine demands.
For more information on NextMove motion products click here
Application notes:
The following application notes are relevant to this application:
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AN00194
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Vertical Form Fill Seal application note (using Mint motion control)
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AN00181
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Over wrapper application note
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AN00184 |
Product spacing (aligning randomly spaced products to a flighted conveyor) |
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AN00154
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Rotary cutting at synchronous speed (this principle can be used for sealing jaws)
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Further application notes are available.
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