Touchscreen ideal for label producing machines

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jun 19, 2000

Vectra Systems, of East Yorkshire, has chosen the TX Touchscreen from Red Lion as the operator interface for part of its new range of label producing machines.

Vectra Systems, of East Yorkshire, has chosen the TX Touchscreen from Red Lion as the operator interface for part of its new range of label producing machines.

The TX is part of Red Lion's Paradigm range of HMIs, which also includes the CL20 and GL350 as used on other Vectra Systems machines Vectra chose the TX for its ability to provide a user-friendly interface for operators to control the entire label producing process and for its exceptional ability to communicate with a number of devices across disparate protocols.

The TX is specifically designed for industrial applications in the process and control arena, and the stunning, 10.4 inch, thin film transistor display, with 640x480 VGA resolution, particularly impressed Vectra Systems.

The Vectra machines start with printed rolls of paper and produce finished rolls of self-adhesive labels.

The single roll first passes from an unwind through an ultrasonic web guiding system.

It is then fed through a nip roller and into an accumulator which ensures that the flow of the web remains constant at the unwind by taking up any slack.

As the machine is continually starting and stopping, this prevents the master roll from suffering from sudden speed changes which could tear the web.

The web passes through another web guide and then through an end-of-roll marking system which marks the last ten labels of the future rolls, in order that end users can recognise when they are at the end of their supply.

A rotary scissor slitting device slits the web into smaller strips which pass around a transducer roller where the tension is measured and controlled through a closed loop system.

At this point, it is very important that the tension is kept at a predetermined, constant level, as too little tension may cause the finished roll to fall apart and too much tension may cause labels to stick to each other.

The labels are then counted before being cut, sealed and then passed into a conveyor and bowl feeder for packaging.

The whole system, from the unwind to the conveyor, is controlled from the TX Touchscreen.

For each different label type, a series of set up stages is easily entered, to change parameters, such as speed, cut presets, verification, web advance, tension, positional offset, batch counter, line marker, and bowl feeder.

An important feature of the TX's functionality, which allowed the touchscreen to be used to control the entire machine, was the ability to communicate over different protocols, and with more than one device.

Red Lion was able to write drivers to communicate with a Mitsubishi PLC, four Lenze servo drives and a thermal printer.

It was this aspect that impressed Dave Beynon, Vectra's Design Manager, the most: 'I don't think we would have been able to do it with anything else, as we wouldn't have been able to communicate with the PLC, servo drives and the thermal printer Another feature, set up with the use of Red Lion's proprietary EDICT 97 software, is a mimic of the whole machine.

This quickly alerts operators to any faults and directs them straight to the problem area which saves valuable time as, when a fault occurs and the machine stops running, operators do not have to check over the whole system to find the problem.

The user-friendly interface and the quick faultfinding are of great benefit to end-users, as most staff can now operate the labeling machines, whereas previously this was the domain of highly skilled labour.

Making full use of the EDICT 97 software, Vectra has even completed one machine in which the entire TX interface is graphical, with no text at all, and can therefore be exported anywhere in the world.

EDICT 97 was also used by Vectra to set up different security levels.

This requires users to enter passwords to access certain set up and control pages and is primarily used to prevent unskilled operators from tampering with specified settings.