Need Help Detecting Ground Beef

[SLaubach]

yes, went over all of that several times, P+F are lean toward bad prox. will recieve new one tomorrow.

rgds

 

[kirso]

Wont the rotation of the auger flights be picked up by the prox switch? Hope I am thinking of the same thing, we would call it a worm screw here.

 

[Lancie1]

If you can find a switch that detects beef, then the auger flights should be no problem. Run the signal into a PLC, then use a timer to determine how long the switch is on each time.

Switch is on constantly = Beef Present.
Switch on intermittently = Auger turning, but no beef.

 

[SLaubach]

Wont the rotation of the auger flights be picked up by the prox switch? Hope I am thinking of the same thing, we would call it a worm screw here.

i will ignore the flights, the speed of the screw/worm is always the same therefore the time the flight is in front of the prox is known. anthing longer must be beef.

rgds

 

[elevmike]

When there is beef in the auger chute, presumeably it will apply some pressure aganst the chute wall. A thin membrane switch glued to the inside of the chute might do.

 

[kirso]

could you fit an optical sensor with emiiter reciver units to look through auger ?. There should be some point where the sensor would see through the auger flights if no beef present.Not sure if there is anything that is trully capable of seing through glass on the market, although I exspect so.

 

[SLaubach]

Got It! NOT SURE WHY....

OK after a few days and 2 capacitive proxs i finally got it. I rolled the dice and installed its own 24v power supply and an optocoupler to signal back to the plc and it worked, BUT i'm not sure why?? I went this route by reminding myself this switch worked when i had it on the test bench but when in the machine it didnt. 24volts is 24volts right? I metered the original power supply and it was fine, even bumped it up .5volts but didnt work.


an odd thing i noticed prior to installing the 2nd PS was that i had ~5vdc from the 0vdc terminal to the frame of he machine. If i pulled the positive lead off the PS the votage went away. I assume the stray voltage was causing the problem. i never did find where that voltage was coming from but did troubleshoot it down to the input side of the micrologix plc.

anyway, thank ou all for you tips!

 

[danw]

Thanks for the summary.

 

[230grain]

co2 injection

Are you injecting CO2 into the meat for chilling?

The way I have done this in the past is to monitor the current draw on the auger drive. This is how to regulate the CO2 flow. As the meat gets colder the consistancy gets thicker requiring mor current to drive the screw.

You should be also able to determing meat.no meat based on current draw.

 

[nettogrisen]

You need to check the date on the last posts. This is the second old post that you have found today. I think by now the OP has found a solution.

 

[surferb]

Yeah, but Need Help Detecting Ground Beef makes me laugh every time I read it. What a great thread to revive!

You need to check the date on the last posts. This is the second old post that you have found today. I think by now the OP has found a solution.

 

[CharlesM]

Yeah, but Need Help Detecting Ground Beef makes me laugh every time I read it. What a great thread to revive!

Makes me think of the "Where's the beef" lady.

 

[SLaubach]

Update

No longer care about ground beef, what a cold wet job....Making Entenmanns Cakes now, warm, smells better, and has more calories!\

so how do i detect icing?

 

[Myles]

so how do i detect icing?

send us all some cakes and we can do some testing for you!