Ronnie Sullivan
Member
In short, I have inherited a project that has been abandoned by the original installers. Yes abandoned before it has been finished. They realized they couldn't program it to work properly and have used incorrect sensors among many other things.
The system is fairly simple in that it is 5 conveyors end to end (about 4M long each) that takes mattress bases into a wrapping machine.
The workers have stations along the belts making the bases and when they are finished, they throw them onto the belt and these are automatically queued and taken into the wrapping machine.
The original program did not work at all so I wiped it and started again. It is now a beautifully running system apart from one thing.........
There are 11 photoelectric sensors along one side of the belts to detect mattress bases. These work fine when the bases are of a light colour but when they are dark ie brown or black - they do not see them at all.
The sensors that are on are set to full range but to no avail with dark colours.
I suggested fitting reflectors so that the bases break a beam, but they are not happy with that as they would impede the workers putting the heavy bases on the belts.
So now I am trying to find photoelectric sensors that will see both light and dark.
My thinking process was that I could probably double up the sensors - The originals for light colour as they are now and new ones for dark colours. but I don't want to order 11 sensors if they don't work the way I expect.
Oh and the original sensors are the 'barrel' type and there would be just room to drill another 20mm hole for the extra ones.
Any suggestions from anyone experienced in this?
The system is fairly simple in that it is 5 conveyors end to end (about 4M long each) that takes mattress bases into a wrapping machine.
The workers have stations along the belts making the bases and when they are finished, they throw them onto the belt and these are automatically queued and taken into the wrapping machine.
The original program did not work at all so I wiped it and started again. It is now a beautifully running system apart from one thing.........
There are 11 photoelectric sensors along one side of the belts to detect mattress bases. These work fine when the bases are of a light colour but when they are dark ie brown or black - they do not see them at all.
The sensors that are on are set to full range but to no avail with dark colours.
I suggested fitting reflectors so that the bases break a beam, but they are not happy with that as they would impede the workers putting the heavy bases on the belts.
So now I am trying to find photoelectric sensors that will see both light and dark.
My thinking process was that I could probably double up the sensors - The originals for light colour as they are now and new ones for dark colours. but I don't want to order 11 sensors if they don't work the way I expect.
Oh and the original sensors are the 'barrel' type and there would be just room to drill another 20mm hole for the extra ones.
Any suggestions from anyone experienced in this?