Opto 22 first implemented its machine and control technology on its own line. At its Temecula, Calif., factory, this automation supplier produces its G4 modules—single-point input/output (I/O) modules used mainly for applications involving the sending and receiving of digital signals. To ensure that the modules will live up to their lifetime guarantee, the modules are put through the G4 handler for testing. The test includes current load tests as well as inductive, capacitive and resistance tests.

The handler moves large trays of 50 modules back and forth, and left and right while the machine puts each module through several tests.  The company recently rebuilt its handler for greater movement accuracy and smaller size.

The company also wanted to consolidate all I/O functions into a single platform. “You don’t need multiple devices or components to handle typical digital points—like a machine’s limit switches—and then another system for recording analog readings—like machine temperatures—and then a third system to execute the machine’s motion control,” says Ron Schmidt, the Opto22 manufacturing engineer who built the handler. “Now, all the interfacing of sensors and components is performed by a single system, and all functions are defined using a single development environment.”

Welcome to the new world of motion control, where machine information and control are consolidated. “Everyone wants something simpler. So it’s an advantage having motion control as part of your normal programming environment,” says Schmidt. “You want to keep everything under one umbrella.”

The new handler is also more efficient, easier to use, and takes up less space than previous methods used by Opto 22, while all the controls are also more accessible. “Before, we had the old brick system, which had the controller and different brains—we had six racks with six different brains,” says Schmidt. “We got rid of the controller and put it in one brain. It shrunk the machine big time. We’re talking less than a quarter of the space. There’s really big energy savings there.”

The data link to the machine also supplies information from the machine to Opto 22’s enterprise system. “We can see the pass/fail rate, we can track throughput and we can keep test time to a minimum,” says Schmidt.

Motion control is benefiting from integration with control technology. The goal is to bring motion data into the control system, so machines are easier to program. The result is to ability to use smaller machines, smaller and more efficient motors, and the ability to change machine configuration on the fly. Plant operators are also deploying simulation technology to work out the bugs and make adjustments to the machines that allow for quick changes from product to product.

One of the advantages of combining motion control with the overall control systems is that operators can make machine adjustments without deep knowledge of motion programming. “Demanding motion-control applications that require high-performance precision can be fully tested out with their phase compensation feature estimated, so the programmer does not need special knowledge of the system components to do it,” says Bill Faber, senior manager, application engineering, Motion Control Division, at supplier Yaskawa Electric America Inc., Waukegan, Ill.

Using integrated automation to run machines also allows machines to do more. Grenzebach Corp., in Newnan, Ga., builds high-speed stackers, including a machine that stacks glass on a float glass line. Float-glass stackers have long been plagued by slow throughput and displacement that causes breakage. Yet it’s an important production stage for machine operation, as this is the most labor-intensive part of glass production. “Our customers have been demanding a better solution for stacking the many different glass sizes that they manufacture,” says Gerald Haas, technical director at Grenzebach.

Grenzebach engineers went to work with Alphareta, Ga.-based vendor Siemens Industry Inc. to produce a new line of glass handling equipment that features integrated control systems to provide a fully automated stacker. Every function of the cold-end line is being integrated into one control automation platform—including take-over of the glass from the lehr (a kiln used for glass annealing), cutting the glass ribbon into sheets of optimum size, glass snapping, rejection of faulty glass sheets, sorting according to size, and stacking into glass racks with robotics.

Throughput booster

By bringing these functions into one complete and integrated control system, Grenzebach has been able to reduce production costs and increase throughput. With the integration of the stacker into the control system, the new stacker provides transparency at all levels and reduced interfacing requirements. It also provides interoperability of the controller, human-machine interface (HMI) and drives ...