Hello guys,
Imagine wagons,carts,tables or anything similar that are about 4 feet wide by 8' long riding on a rail system. Each lane of rails can accommodate 40-50 of those. They are moved by a motor and an arm thingie that moves from one end only. So a cart enters the line and is pushed tight against the one before it and the whole line gets pushed down the rails until the lane is full and the cart at the front is moved out allowing for more carts to enter the beginning of the line. So the arm moves only about 4 feet or so.
The problem is that when a cart gets derailed for whatever reason the motor just keeps going and damages one or more carts and of course interrupts production. There currently is a trip wire that is installed under the carts with the whole length of the rail so if a cart tips/derails it touches that wire and stops the drive. That system is not very effective as sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it parts of the carts (wheels for example) catch the wire and trips the system.
There are hundreds of those cars in any lanes traveling around and around from one lane to another carrying product. Installing a sensor of whatever type on every cart is too expensive.
I considered installing an encoder on the motor or gearbox and will test that in the near future. I was also thinking about a long range laser/photo sensor but it would have to be very precise to shoot through right under the carts and detect about an inch of obstruction.
Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Cheer
Kal
Imagine wagons,carts,tables or anything similar that are about 4 feet wide by 8' long riding on a rail system. Each lane of rails can accommodate 40-50 of those. They are moved by a motor and an arm thingie that moves from one end only. So a cart enters the line and is pushed tight against the one before it and the whole line gets pushed down the rails until the lane is full and the cart at the front is moved out allowing for more carts to enter the beginning of the line. So the arm moves only about 4 feet or so.
The problem is that when a cart gets derailed for whatever reason the motor just keeps going and damages one or more carts and of course interrupts production. There currently is a trip wire that is installed under the carts with the whole length of the rail so if a cart tips/derails it touches that wire and stops the drive. That system is not very effective as sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes it parts of the carts (wheels for example) catch the wire and trips the system.
There are hundreds of those cars in any lanes traveling around and around from one lane to another carrying product. Installing a sensor of whatever type on every cart is too expensive.
I considered installing an encoder on the motor or gearbox and will test that in the near future. I was also thinking about a long range laser/photo sensor but it would have to be very precise to shoot through right under the carts and detect about an inch of obstruction.
Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Cheer
Kal