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Intelligent drive provides flexible motion control solution for end-of-line case packing machinery

November 11, 2003......A motion control system based on a standalone intelligent drive, is providing a flexible upgrade for Kappa's wrap-around packaging machinery. The new control system, developed by Baldor, provides a compact solution, and additionally introduces new flexibility through its built in multi-tasking capability.

The machine is the System 2100 case/tray packer from Kappa Corrugated UK's packaging systems division. This end-of-line equipment collates groups of cartons and packs them into cases or trays for transit and/or display, and is widely used by leading breakfast cereal manufacturers. The machine can be reconfigured in minutes for different case and tray sizes, and has won a customer-nominated award from the UK's PPMA because of this flexibility.

The new motion control system operates autonomously, after receiving high level command signals from a PLC controlling the overall process. As a collated group of cereal cartons move into the machine, they are loaded into the partially erected corrugated blank. Baldor's MintDrive then controls the flight chains that move the blank and its contents through stages of folding, and sealing using hot melt adhesive. As the case erection process begins, the drive indexes the materials to a precise starting position, by moving forward a certain numbers of encoder counts, while also taking data from a photocell sensor and dynamically micro-adjusting the target position as required. As the flights are on a continuous chain, the case is then in a precise position for each of the subsequent erection stages. While passing through these stages, the drive's integral digital outputs are used to control guns that fire adhesive in a stitched pattern onto the corrugated flaps as they are being folded.

The decision to use an intelligent drive provided a compact solution, because it incorporates a machine control system running the BASIC-like Mint motion language, including I/O for the associated sensing and actuation tasks and a CAN fieldbus which is used to interface a human-machine interface (HMI).

It also helped to provide a more elegant solution because of its built-in multi tasking kernel, which allowed the application program to be broken down into smaller, self-contained, tasks of indexing, gluing, and recipe editing. This software modularity has helped to enhance the operating efficiency of the machine, as it allows operators to adjust and optimise glue pattern recipes on-the-fly. If the length of the glue pattern needs reducing because it is visible for example, the operator can now achieve this in seconds - without stopping the machine and losing production.