Conveyor Speed Modulation Help

[JoseM]

I have this situation where there are about 9 conveyors that are used to convey aluminum cans. Do you guys know of a method that I can use to determine what the speed of everyone of those conveyors should be in relation to each other.

We are using and SLC 5/04 with 1746-NIO4V modules to control their speed. The machine that is being feed by these conveyors runs at a rate between 700 - 1400 PPM.

Any help will be much appreciated.

 

[James Mcquade]

JoseM,
what brand of vfd(s)?

regards,
james

 

[jrwb4gbm]

Always more questions to define the details of the problem. Are the conveyors parallel or serial to each other? Are they single file or multiple rows of cans?
Most can conveyors that are single file use a couple of prox's for high or low speed or stop for an upstream conveyor after a time delay if both prox's are made. The high speed of the conveyor should be faster than the highest speed of the machine and the low speed of the conveyor should be slower than the slowest speed of the machine.
A little more info will help.

 

[JoseM]

The VFD's that are used are Power Flex 4. The conveyors are "Mass Conveyors", multiple rows of cans and they merge into each other in a serial fashion.

These conveyors as mentioned have prox's for "High" and "Low" speed and they also stop the conveyors if upstream there is a backup condition.

 

[James Mcquade]

it has been several years, but you can buy interface cards for the drives and configure them as master / slaves.

like i said, it has been several years since we did this project. you may want to talk to your local rep for details.
regards,
james

 

[randomFire]

What you are asking is a little difficult to answer without seeing a line layout, however...

Normal conveyor philosophy of a bottling or canning line revolves around the Filler. That's the machine that sets the speed benchmark for the rest of the line.
In a nutshell, conveyors need to match their speed with the cans exiting the Filler (which usually has a single file exit conveyor mechanically coupled to the Filler itself) to avoid fallers. From the single file to the mass conveyor the cans bunch to fill 50% of the mass conveyor and the cans transported down to the infeed of the Traypacker/Pasteuriser or whatever machine it may be.

Mass conveyors leading into the downstream machine from the Filler need to avoid:-
- hitting the cans together too hard
- over pressure during buildback
- starving the machine downstream

Like I said, very difficult to answer without a layout. Could you post a drawing of the line? A simple non Da Vinci masterpiece in MSPaint would suffice.

 

[pino2003fr]

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=46911
http://www.hytrol.com/brandinfo/hcctraining/abc.html
http://www.generaltools.com/assets/images/manuals/CT6235B-Manual.pdf