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Automating the hydraulic pressure hose production process
the rotating turret. The turret rotates at speeds up to 3,000rpm. The manual operation of this process results in a lot of waste material since the optical detection by the operator is inaccurate resulting in increased manufacturing costs. The costs have now been reduced by the implementation of an automated monitoring system.
T
he Veritas Group develops and produces sealing and connection
systems for the automotive industry and industrial goods. Charge air and fuel line systems, pulleys, bumpers are also included in its product portfolio. A key issue of the Veritas Group is the
transmission of power with liquids. The complex hydraulic applications developed by Veritas and manufactures are commonly used in the automotive sector.
CUSTOMISED SOLUTIONS In the extrusion process a product will be pressed out of a solid or viscous curable composite continuously under extreme pressure from a shaped opening (also referred to as a nozzle or die tip). In this application the body is formed from the cross section of an opening to, in theory, any length (here, hydraulic pressure hoses). Lengths of yarn fabric are embedded
into the hydraulic pressure hoses by means of a yarn knitting machine. The yarn spools are mounted on a turret bore and, by rotating the turret bore, the yarn is evenly threaded on to the continuous pipe. The time taken to unspool a spool of yarn until it is empty is approximately. two to two and a half hours. Monitoring the yarn spool has
historically been a manual operation, where the operator observes with the aid of a stroboscope through a window on
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS FROM PANASONIC: ‘EVERYTHING FROM ONE SOURCE’ The comprehensive product portfolio for solutions in the field of automation technology offered by Panasonic allows a single source solution to be implemented for this application. Using hardware Sensors, PLC, HMI and software solutions for each of the products means the entire need for this automation process is covered by products from a single source ensuring guaranteed compatibility.
DISTANCE MEASUREMENT BY HL-C2 SERIES LASER ANALOG SENSOR The yarn spool needs to be monitored automatically and not by the old operator method therefore an HL-C2
‘High Density Linear Cell’ (HDLC) CMOS chip serves as a receiving element meaning both the measurement resolution and the measurement frequency of HLC2 series achieves a new performance dimension in laser distance sensor technology.
FLOW OF PROCESS AUTOMATION Product specification is entered to a recipe via the HMI panel (Panasonic GT series) and relates to the bobbin diameter measurement values, number of monitored coils (up to 12 pieces) and the limits of the coil diameter (so-called, yellow/red phase). The absolute measured value detected by the laser displacement sensor is converted to an analog signal which is compared and processed in the PLC program with the limit values from the recipe.
RECORDING AND PROCESSING OF MEASURED VALUES Applying the yarn fabric to the hydraulic pressure hoses means the bobbins diameter is continuously reduced resulting in the measured distance between the laser analog sensor and yarn package increasing. Therefore the measured value of the detected distance increases and is processed in the control unit of the laser sensor to an analog measured value that is output to the PLC. The Panasonic FP-X Series PLC detects
the analog measurement value through an analog input module and the measured value of the sensor is compared, processed and evaluated. The result of the evaluation is visually displayed on a traffic light type indicator on the HMI to the operator.
laser analog sensor from Panasonic is used. These sensors set new standards in industrial optical distance measurement and are characterised by high measurement accuracy, a measurement resolution of up to 0.01μm, fast response with sampling up to 100kHz and a low linearity error (≤ ±0.02%). The HL-C2 series use a high quality
laser light source controlled using patented technology that is controlled by a ultrafast signal processor running specially adapted algorithms provides signal processing and digitising in real time. In addition the specially developed
8 SEPTEMBER 2016 | AUTOMATION
RESULTING BENEFITS TO VERITAS AG The automated monitoring of the manufacturing process has allowed Veritas AG to realise large cost savings on two levels. Firstly the volume of the yarn material is considerably reduced and secondly the operator is no longer required to permanently control the process, whereby time is saved and other tasks can be performed. Other products and solutions to
optimise costs in the field of automation technology, for example, includes the new Panasonic ECO-POWER-Meter.
Panasonic Electric Works UK
www.panasonic-electric-works.co.uk
/AUTOMATION
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