Product category:
CNC and Motion Controllers
News Release from: Festo | Subject: Festo SPC servo controller
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 27 October 2000
Servo-pneumatics first in filling
machine
Essex based Quadrant has developed a new generation of volumetric filling machine believed to be the first design to employ servo-pneumatics; it uses an Festo SPC servo controller
Essex based Quadrant, manufacturer of filling systems for the industrial, pharmaceutical and food processing markets, has developed a new generation of volumetric filling machine believed to be the first design to employ servo-pneumatics The new system uses a Festo SPC servo controller to precisely control filled volumes through closed loop feedback, offering unique commercial advantages to manufacturers and distributors of high-value liquid materials - for example pharmaceutical oil bases sold by weight
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 5 Mar 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Such applications are typically sensitive to volume fluctuations with temperature change, and so an accurate filling machine must be able to adjust the volume to compensate for these changes.
A common industry practice is to slightly overfill each container.
However, this has a real accrued cost in lost material value over time.
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In contrast, the Quadrant approach features built-in temperature compensation in the filling machine to give accurate weights at 20C - especially critical for oils and blending operations.
It can also use a checkweigher at the output purely as a second level of confidence to look for trends away from the ideal fill weight, while a touch screen provides discrete changes to fill, speed and acceleration, as well as reducing changeover times.
The stroke of the volumetric filling cylinder is directly driven by a pneumatic cylinder to dispense the material.
The reverse stroke draws up the next charge, the outlet valve is switched and the next filling stroke begins.
The dive nozzle position and speeds can be varied, and there is full control over the speed of both charge movement and discharge movement.
The servo permits precise control of fill volume and sets the cylinder speed to provide the optimum fill rate without damage to the material - for instance unwanted aeration, separation or splitting possible with some oils, or 'pyramid effect' found with very thick oils.
By acting directly on the drive cylinder, the supervisory controller can instantly respond to constantly changing fill volume requirements, whether it be minute adjustments needed to compensate for temperature influences or entirely different filling characteristics to give total flexibility with batch sizes of one.
100 different filling programs can be stored in the system, which is available in one, two and five litre versions.
The volumetric filling system can also be integrated into Magflow and Corriolys filling systems. Request a free brochure from Festo ...
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