Looking for Automation project ideas

I'm looking for some ideas for an automation project that is to be completed in about 7 months taking in mind that students are working on the project and will not be available full time.

The project must make use of a PLC(or more than one),an HMI,VFD and sensors(All Siemens equipment). Pneumatics equipment (FESTO) is also going to be used.

Any project ideas will be good.

Thanks

PLEASE don't do a traffic light system!

One thing that came up recently was a washing machine program, maybe could use the pneumatics for door locks? Other than that the pneumatic side is poor really; but thats my fisrt suggestion

How about an elevator?

How about a shooting gallery ? The VFD controls a rotating conveyor with hinged targets that have to be positioned in front of a pneumatic "gun" - the air blows the spoke over. Another "gun" puts the targets back up.

3 floors

Top Floor 1 down button with light
Middle Floor up or down button with lights
Bottom floor Up Button with lights
Each floor has 3 lights to show which floor the elevator is on
Middle floor has an up/down indicator

All floors have a solenoid to close the outer doors
1 solenoid for the inner door

Inside
Buttons and lights for all 3 floors
Blocked Door Safety Sensor
E-Stop
bell

Prox sensors for slow down and in position at the floor
Brake

The lift one looks good, but the shooting galary sounds WAY more fun!

Lyle said:

The project must make use of a PLC(or more than one),an HMI,VFD and sensors(All Siemens equipment). Pneumatics equipment (FESTO) is also going to be used.
Thanks

Click to expand...

Here in the states we have a carnival game called "whack a mole".

"Moles" pop up (at random) from a cabinet with holes on top. The contestant "whacks" them with a cushioned mallet. Use the pneumatics to raise and lower the "moles" . Use cylinder reed switches to determine if the contestant has "whacked the mole" it then retracts. Keep score on the HMI, run a fan (aimed at the contestant) with the VFD in relation to the score. Pop up faster and faster according to the contestant's ability.

milldrone said:

Here in the states we have a carnival game called "whack a mole".

Click to expand...

I hate that whack a mole game my son got one for christmas. It was cool at first then after a week the darn batteries just died a rapid death.

What about an industrial mixer? A VFD to drive the mixer blade, the PLC could handle adding the ingredients by turning the pnuematic valves on/off and a simple recipe function could be defined using the OIT.

This really should not take that long to develop, it is a real world application and it could provide some good experience with sequential logic programming.

Regards

Lyle said:

I'm looking for some ideas for an automation project that is to be completed in about 7 months taking in mind that students are working on the project and will not be available full time.

The project must make use of a PLC(or more than one),an HMI,VFD and sensors(All Siemens equipment). Pneumatics equipment (FESTO) is also going to be used.
Any project ideas will be good. Thanks

Click to expand...

What is purpose of class - machinery controls or machinery design and construction OR both?

Attended two quarters at Seattle Community College for VFD and PLC. I concentrated on PLC and controls and simulated a lot of the machine. Worked well for me.

Observed other students who built complicated machines (can crusher 4 floor elevator). they got bogged down in the equipment mostly because they had to work from salavaged components. Took lots of ingenuity and time of course. The mechanical difficulties distracted them from doing the controls part completely. Still a good learning experience.

I would say if you can keep fabrication to a minimum (extensive machine work welding etc etc) and you have a good selection of materials and components doing both the machine design construction and controls would be the ideal.

Can crusher using VFD for conveyer belt drives, pneumatics to hold can in place then more pneumatic (cylinder) to crush can, ejector (either air blast or motor driven) and outfeed conveyer.

Food or other liquid / poweder product filling. Pneumatics to open fill valve, pneumatic driven piston connected to "goop" piston, VFD for conveyer drive or even a goop pump.

In either or both of above screens can be used to set speeds air pressure, stop start, alarms, number units per unit time, etc etc.


Dan Bentler

during my college, we improve the water irrigation system (industrial category). I think its very beneficial.

What other hardware will be available?
Pumps? valves? pneumatic cylinders? conveyors?

Since you have a VFD, something that utilizes PID control may be beneficial.

The students will consists of both mechanical engineering students and electrical engineering students. Fabrication and rapid prototyping is possible. There is a budget so extra equipment can be bought. The pneumatics,PLC,HMI etc will be supplied and will depend on the type of project selected.

With regard to Leitmotif, it will be both machinery controls and machinery design and construction.

Some sort of industry application will be the best.

I had ideas of a automated welding system, automated bar or a ship loader that first weighs all the containers and places them on a ship according to the weight distribution needed so that the ship does not tilt over.

Ideas For An Automated Welding System

Hi,

For ideas on an automated welding systems you could take a look here:

http://www.industrial-automation-hands-on.com/welding-gap-recognition.html

KP_EENG said:

What about an industrial mixer? A VFD to drive the mixer blade, the PLC could handle adding the ingredients by turning the pnuematic valves on/off and a simple recipe function could be defined using the OIT.

This really should not take that long to develop, it is a real world application and it could provide some good experience with sequential logic programming.

Regards

Click to expand...

I was thinking along the same lines, just expand it into a batch process to take raw ingredients and turn them into a "Kool-Aid" beverage.

Everyone knows how to make Kool-Aid! So thinking of the "process" aspect should be fairly easy. Have a hopper system hold the sugar, water valve, various flavor hoppers and of course a mixer/blender. Have weight/temperature/level sensors for analog feedback, have the VFD run the mixer. Granted some of this would be simulated on the HMI to provide the complete picture but you can always add more hardware later.

You then could expand into the HMI programming by developing a recipe system for the different flavors, and expand more into database storage to hold recipe information, batch information....