jrupp82
Member
Hi all,
First of all, so I keep everyone square, I'm running a CompactLogix PLC with RSLogix5000.
I'm looking for some help with an application I have built in-house. I have a robotic pick & place machine that I have in production, and I'm looking to make an enhancement to a Tray Loading feature that I use. Currently, the machine will accept stacks of trays that we place parts into, unstack those trays, feed singles into the Robot Zone, then restack them after exiting the zone as a full tray. These said trays are typically the same size for a production run, however, on some occasions, we will run out of available trays of the desired standard size, and substitute it for another that will work, which is just taller/shorter.
Now, my machine is currently setup to handle all of the variety of trays that we have in house, that's not the issue. The issue is that currently, the only way to change tray size is to out the remainder of the current trays until the machine is empty, change tray size on the HMI, and load the new trays in. All in all that works, but we try to run this machine with what we call a partial operator. That person is responsible for 4 other machines to keep running, and what is going to happen is the machine will sit empty, shut off, for several minutes until they come back around to it.
What I would like to create is a queue for the front of the machine, where typically it would be populated with 7 stacks of the "standard" tray. The information that I would store for that would be tray size & number of trays per stack. When an instance comes up that the operator has to change tray sizes, they will access the machine through the HMI, indicate how many more standard tray stacks are in line, if there is a partial stack of standard trays (and how many in it), and then the new tray size and quantity per stack. That way, the machine doesn't shut down, I'll just keep track of the queue and I'll know when to change over to the new size.
I've been reading this, and other forums searching for a solution, but I still don't quite understand how to handle this. I don't know whether to use the FIFO instructions, or to write my own code to handle it, or....Just looking for some insight from others who have had more experience than myself.
Thanks in advance!
First of all, so I keep everyone square, I'm running a CompactLogix PLC with RSLogix5000.
I'm looking for some help with an application I have built in-house. I have a robotic pick & place machine that I have in production, and I'm looking to make an enhancement to a Tray Loading feature that I use. Currently, the machine will accept stacks of trays that we place parts into, unstack those trays, feed singles into the Robot Zone, then restack them after exiting the zone as a full tray. These said trays are typically the same size for a production run, however, on some occasions, we will run out of available trays of the desired standard size, and substitute it for another that will work, which is just taller/shorter.
Now, my machine is currently setup to handle all of the variety of trays that we have in house, that's not the issue. The issue is that currently, the only way to change tray size is to out the remainder of the current trays until the machine is empty, change tray size on the HMI, and load the new trays in. All in all that works, but we try to run this machine with what we call a partial operator. That person is responsible for 4 other machines to keep running, and what is going to happen is the machine will sit empty, shut off, for several minutes until they come back around to it.
What I would like to create is a queue for the front of the machine, where typically it would be populated with 7 stacks of the "standard" tray. The information that I would store for that would be tray size & number of trays per stack. When an instance comes up that the operator has to change tray sizes, they will access the machine through the HMI, indicate how many more standard tray stacks are in line, if there is a partial stack of standard trays (and how many in it), and then the new tray size and quantity per stack. That way, the machine doesn't shut down, I'll just keep track of the queue and I'll know when to change over to the new size.
I've been reading this, and other forums searching for a solution, but I still don't quite understand how to handle this. I don't know whether to use the FIFO instructions, or to write my own code to handle it, or....Just looking for some insight from others who have had more experience than myself.
Thanks in advance!