Product category:
Machine Building Components
News Release from: Unimatic Engineers | Subject: Motion control
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 26 April 2000
Controller helps form-in-place gasketing
machines
Unimatic's versatile SM400 controller is being used in the latest generation of "form-in-place" gasketing machines from RFI Shielding.
Versatile Unimatic controller helps form-in-place gasketing machines meet growth in demand Motion control specialist, Unimatic has announced that its versatile SM400 controller is being used in the latest generation of "form-in-place" gasketing machines from RFI Shielding RFI Shielding is a leading UK supplier of shielding products and built its business over the last two decades manufacturing gaskets for low volume applications, particularly in the military and aerospace sectors
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 26 Apr 2000 at 8.00am (UK)
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Three years ago, the company identified the potential for form-in-place technology where a special conductive elastomer is laid onto a substrate using CNC equipment.
The result was Xyshield, gaskets that provide high levels of EMI/RFI shielding and environmental sealing at low cost in high volume applications, specifically the mobile phone market.
The company developed the gasket material initially and then established its suitability for mobile phone applications.
RFI Shielding then needed to find a way to apply the elastomer as Rob Claydon, Xyshield Manager explained: "When we started looking around for a machine to apply the elastomer, there wasn't anything suitable available at the time.
Indeed there still isn't so we set about designing and building our own dispensing system with the help of companies like Unimatic." He continued, "In fact, the development machine was one that had been supplied by Unimatic many years ago for a project dispensing hot-melt adhesives.
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That project got shelved and the machine was mothballed until we needed something to dispense the form-in-place gasket material.
The old machine was recommissioned for the original Xyshield development programme and is still in use today." In the three years since RFI Shielding first developed Xyshield, it has produced a wide variety of machines as volumes have increased.
The original single head development machine was followed by two and four head machines and there are now two further four head machines and seven eight head machines in use or under construction.
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These give RFI Shielding the capacity to coat some 15 million mobile phone handsets per year.
Rob Claydon commented, "Some of the earlier machines were based on another controller that suffered from some reliability problems.
To counter these problems, Unimatic's SM400 controller is being used on RFI Shielding's latest generation of eight head Xyshield machines and it was also chosen for a further project to develop a machine that could apply the gasket in batches of hundreds rather than the tens of thousands typical of the mobile phone market.
This coincided with our own development of a new system for dispensing the elastomer material." He continued, "The SM400 integrates particularly well with our new head technology and gives us more control over the formation of the gasket bead.
Effectively, the SM400 treats the elastomer flow rate as a fourth axis which allows better control at start up, stop and corners, reducing 'knuckling' of the material at these critical points.
The overall result is higher processing speeds." Rob Claydon concluded, "With its easier and more intuitive programming, the SM400 has solved a lot of problems for us and has been instrumental in enabling the application of our new dispensing technology." Unimatic's SM400 continuous path controller is capable of controlling four (or optionally eight) axes in a wide variety of applications such as motorised robots, CNC machines and other processes including assembly, pick-and-place, screwing, riveting, welding, soldering, drilling, milling, turning, grinding, engraving, laser cutting and measuring.
The unit provides integration of axis control, I/O management and the user interface in a single controller to allow easy automation of all kinds of processes.
The SM400 delivers continuous path control to four or eight power amplifiers for stepper or servo motors.
Fully configurable, the controller can be set up to match the mechanical and electrical properties of the equipment being driven.
Position accuracy of each axis can be set from 1mm down to 1æm.
Features of the new SM400 include menu driven interface with 7in screen or LCD panel, direct control from a PC via an RS232 interface, and user definable I/O range expandable from 16 opto decoupled inputs and 8 relay outputs up to 64 inputs and 64 outputs.
The SM400 uses "G and M Code Programs" that include linear, circular and helical interpolation, electronic gears and counter axis.
These can be entered at the front panel or downloaded via the bi-directional RS232 interface.
Once loaded, programs are stored on an interchangeable, battery-backed 32, 64, 128 or 256KB memory card and can be listed, viewed, edited or deleted.
A comprehensive command set of internal programming instructions along with up to 30,000 arithmetic and data registers are also included to enable a 'user specific' interface to be presented on the display if required.
Additional options for the SM400 controller include a PLC (SM2) and power amplifiers that can be integrated within the unit.
Unimatic can supply the SM400 as a stand-alone controller or as part of complete integrated systems including all stepper and/or servo motors, XYZ tables, electromechanical components and linear guides selected from the company's wide portfolio of products from the world's leading manufacturers. Request a free brochure from Unimatic Engineers ...
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