Fences for Less purchased a metal cutting machine from China. This automated machine will be used to cut or scribe an aluminum fence posts. The cutting machine did not come with the controls from China and there was another integrator that specified the controls. After purchasing the controls, the other integrator disappeared. We installed an enclosure that housed the PLC, servo amplifiers, VFDs, power supply and contactors. The motors used in the fence cutting machine were custom built induction motors from China. The original manufacture of the machine had 2 in stock so we installed 2 VFDs to control the speed of the motors.
HMI and PLC Programming
The automated machine utilizes IDEC industrial automation components. We ended up using two of the Automation Direct Sure Servos. The 600 Watt servo motor is used to move the carriage and the 400 Watt servo motor is used for the pusher on the left side. The PLC programming uses ladder program type with some blocks. The automated fence cutting machine can cut up to 20 pickets at once and will automatically cut up to 4 scribe marks in a single run.