Industrial Automation Solution

Geothermal Engine

Industrial Automation Solution was approached by Novel Therm to build the controls for their geothermal heat engine. Novel Therm is an innovator in the geothermal green energy arena. They were interested in both controlling the Stirling heat engine and being able to log extensive amounts of data.

PLC Controls

We selected the iQ-R PLC by Mitsubishi Electric to control and gather data from the Stirling heat engine. The iQ-R series PLC is a rack bases PLC and has a variety of different modules and redundant PLC capabilities. Expansion was also a concern as the development of the project moves to the next phase.

HMI Visualization

For visualization, we used the GT2108 HMI from Mitsubishi Electric. This gave us the graphical interface locally at the unit and remote viewing/control from anywhere with an internet connection.

Automated Parts Dipping Machine

CaPlugs is a plastic parts manufacturer. They asked Industrial Automation Solution to update the existing controls on their parts automated parts dipping machine. These controls consisted of an old Automation Direct DL05 PLC an external timer with an analog controller to control the induction motor speed with a pot. The video above shows us testing the new 400W servo motor lifting over 50 lbs. at well under maximum torque.

FX5U PLC

GT2108 HMI

We gave the customer an option on 2 different systems and they chose the Mitsubishi Electrics option. This option is all Ethernet based communications with the PLC, HMI and Servo controller on the Ethernet CC link IE Field Basic network. After the first design, the customer requested a larger HMI and wanted to use recipes. We increased the size of the HMI to 7 inch wide type and utilized the recipe function.

Automated Pick and Place Machine

Harvard Card was wanting an automation integrator to build an automated pick and place machine for their card assembly. This automated system utilized 6 motion controllers (Yaskawa MP2300s) to synchronize each axis motion with the product as it came down the conveyor.

We choose the Yaskawa MP2300 single axis motion controller x6 for the motion control and the Redlion HMI for visualization. The Redlion HMI was connected using Modbus TCP and the drives were connected using EtherCat.

Drawing supplied by Yaskawa in their quick start guide for the MP2300. They also supplied a small program for demonstrating the controllers functionality.

Automated Fence Cutting Machine

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 custom built induction motors and 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.

Robotic Testing Cell for Fuel Isolation Rods

A Local Aerospace company that manufactures fuel isolation rods was looking to automate their quality control testing procedure. Industrial Automation Solution was contracted to build a robotic testing cell to weight the parts and measure resistance using a Hypot. The fuel isolation rods come in 20 different sizes. They very in length approxematly 5 inch for the shorter and 10 inch for the longer. The width varies from 8 cm to 55 cm.

Mechanical Design

Our mechanical engineer designed a bin to transport the fuel rods from the loading area to the robot pick/place location and then to the unload location.

Robotic testing cell parts presentation angle along with the robot stand height, conveyor height was tested in AutoCAD and verified with the first generation bin.

Electrical Design

The electrical components for the robotic testing cell included a UR5 Universal robot, FX5U Mitsubishi PLC, GT2508 HMI and (2) 8ft conveyors.

At the beginning of the day, the robot testing cell system automatically uploads the current open jobs report via serial connection from their AS400 IBM system. It uses that jobs report to with bar code numbers to generate individual jobs that have isolation rods with unique serial numbers. The jobs report also includes the high and low values for the testing parameters. At the end of the day, a report is generated from the robot testing system and is transferred back to the AS400 system.

Automated VFD Conveyor Control Cleanup

Industrial Automation Solution was contacted by Adrian, the director of engineering at Health-Ade, a manufacturer of health drinks. Adrian called us and was quite upset about the his automated VFD conveyor control system being down and needed someone to respond or he was going to have to start sending employees home. This automated VFD conveyor control system, which consisted of 50 AB VFD drives, transported the product through the bottle labeling, filling and capping process and when the conveyor system goes down the whole process stops. We responded in about 2 hours and found the system running but Adrian was not happy with the conveyor systems reliability and his technical staff not having the proper documentation to troubleshoot problems.

The system integration company that originally installed the conveyor system left the project incomplete without labeling any wires and decided to take the wiring diagrams with them. The conveyor VFD panel had wires strung about with no panduit covers and no one on site with any technical knowledge of how the system was originally designed to function. We talked to Adrian about creating Auto-CAD drawings and installing wire numbers. He agreed and contracted us to help them. We are in the process of creating wire diagrams and cleaning up the panel.

Robot Integration for Tire Removal/Installation Station

RoboTire, who is designing a robotic automated tire removal/installation station was creating a new concept utilizing 2 articulated arm Mitsubishi robots. They contracted Industrial Automation Solution to complete the robot integration of these two robots into their latest design concept. Currently, we are in initial stages of programming, testing and design and are adding Cognex vision system for several tasks including to locate tire placement along with lug nut removal/placement . Please click on the link to see video for the latest progress on this project. https://youtu.be/WLezgajcGAU

Mitsubishi Electric Automation Robot 3D Vision System

Mitsubishi Electric Automation Robot 3D Vision System was developed in response to the needs of the manufacturing industry, enabling customers to create and deploy a robotic random part picking solution that works quickly, accurately, and with dexterity. Employing Canon proprietary digital imaging technologies, the RV1100, RV1100P, RV500 and RV300 serve as the “eyes” of Mitsubishi Electric robots. Through cutting-edge image-recognition, data processing, and optical technologies, these eyes are capable of the three-dimensional sensing necessary to successfully identify randomly located parts within a bin or pile.

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Unitronics Adds New Motion Control Solution

Unitronics Adds New Motion Control Solution: Unitronics is known for combination HMI + PLC units has now introduced motion control to their already robust line-up. Easy to implement motion function blocks that help with development and commissioning make it a great choice for machine builders. Check out the latest developments with Unitronics. Known for high quality innovated industrial automated solutions, Unitronics has released a easy to implement motion solution to their already robust lineup of HMI + PLC lineup.

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