Projects --------
Here are just a few of the projects that we have been involved in as the Lead Control Systems engineer:
- Working for a Cambridge based product development company on an innovative new product making use of a Coherent excimer laser, sub micron accuracy servo stages, a Cognex vision system and micron displacement measurement capability all controlled by Allen Bradley CompactLogix and ControlLogix PLC’s. A very exciting project making use of and developing new technology within the medical sector.
- The supply of 3 machines to the Pharmaceutical Industry, assembling components used in a medical device supplied into class 7 and 8 clean rooms within a production facility in Ireland, with GSK as the end customer. Utilizing a Siemens S7300 series PLC and two S7200 series PLC’s on the smaller machines, all with basic OP7 and
TD200 HMI’s. The production machines use a vision system to check a component that was vulnerable to being defectively moulded as well as Tag readers to keep track of pallets travelling around the conveyor system and sensor redundancy checking on every cycle ensured that sensor failures would be flagged up immediately.
- A Birmingham based medical company supplying disposable bed curtains to the NHS. A high-speed production machine using a Lenze Servo PLC to control the entire machine; including operator interface via a Nais/Panasonic HMI. An impressive machine taking pleated curtain material, which is bacterial resistant, to which curtain hooks are ultrasonically welded. An index table was used, to supply the hooks to the welders, which was controlled by the Servo PLC via Beckhoff remote I/O over CanBus.
- A high value machine supplied to the automotive sector, producing seats for Nissan, Ford and Volvo cars. A final assembly line, including product verification, which comprised manual and
automatic assembly stations. An S7-315 PLC and 9 Siemens MP Touch screen HMI’s networked with Ethernet were used on this line. An ABB robot with vision system was used to check the presence of bolts and rivets. Servo drives were used to test the movement and measure the force of the seat rails to ensure that the seat was within specification.
- The supply of 3 Machines packaging single use pulp receptacles for use in the NHS.
These systems check for defects in the bottles using a light test and use an
ABB 6 axis robot to package the good bottles. Packaging one bottle every second
these highly successful machines have enabled the customer to 100% check every
bottle that is shipped and has reduced the labour requirements while increasing
output. Using Allen Bradley Compact Logix PLC's and Pro Face touch screen HMI's
to control a Servo driven gantry, conveyor system and robot packaging cell. The
machine used Ethernet and DeviceNet as the communications protocols.
