Balluff

4 Reasons Why Machine Builders Use IO-Link

Corey Shepherd, CMAFH Brain Products Team

So, why might a machine builder use IO-Link? Here are a few reasons:

1.      Flexibility

IO-Link provides a flexible and easy-to-use interface that allows for the seamless integration of sensors and actuators from different manufacturers. This makes it easier to customize and upgrade automation systems as needed.

Machine builders can use IO-Link to connect a wide range of sensors and actuators, such as pressure sensors, temperature sensors, flow meters, solenoid valves, and even motors.

2.      Cost savings

IO-Link can help reduce installation and maintenance costs by simplifying wiring and reducing the need for specialized cabling.

With IO-Link, machine builders can use standard unshielded three-conductor cables for all connections, reducing the number of cables required and simplifying the wiring process. Instead of individually wiring devices back to a terminal strip or IO modules, IO Link allows machine builders to land devices to IP67 or IP69K machine mount M12 IO Link masters or hubs.  

3.      Increased functionality

Additionally, IO-Link sensors and actuators can provide diagnostic information that can help reduce downtime and increase overall system efficiency.

IO-Link can provide advanced features such as parameterization, identification, and diagnostic capabilities. With parameterization, machine builders can configure and adjust sensor and actuator settings, such as sensing range and output type, to meet specific application requirements. Identification enables automatic identification and configuration of IO-Link devices when they are connected to the system. And with diagnostic capabilities, machine builders can monitor and diagnose issues with sensors and actuators in real-time, helping to reduce downtime and increase system efficiency.

4.      Simplifying Safety

It is also possible to integrate safety devices with a PLE/SIL 3 rating in to your IO Link system if the correct hardware is used. Safety IO Link enables communication between safety devices, such as light curtains, E-Stop buttons, safety door switches, and a safety PLC.

Safety IO Link allows for more effective monitoring and control in industrial applications because each safety device can communicate its status and diagnostic information to the safety controller. This allows for simple and quick identification of safety fault issues. This is all accomplished with quick M12 connections between safety devices and a Safety IO Link module.

About Us

CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is a leader in the IO Link space by helping customers with full machine layouts using Balluff IO Link Masters, hubs, and devices. We would love an opportunity to show you how we can help optimize the right IO Link system for your machine!

Corey Shepherd.
CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne Brain Products Team

Contact me at:
Office: 630-563-3710
Mobile: 847-899-2390
email: coreyshepherd@cmafh.com

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Start Condition Monitoring With Vibration Sensors

by Anjesh Shekhar, Balluff

IIOT (Industrial internet of things) has gained much traction and attraction in past years. With industries getting their assets online for monitoring purposes and new IO-Link sensors providing a ton of information on a single package, monitoring machines has become economically feasible.

Vibration is one of the most critical metrics regarding the health of machines, providing early detection of potential faults – before they cause damage or equipment failure. But since this is a relatively new field and use case, there is not much information about it. Most customers are confused about where to start. They want a baseline to begin monitoring machines and then finetune them to their use case.

“Vibration is one of the most critical metrics regarding the health of machines…”

One approach to solve this is to hire a vibration expert to determine the baseline and the best location to mount the vibration measuring sensor. Proper setup increases the threshold of getting into condition monitoring as a new user figures out the feasibility of such systems.

I direct my customers to this standardized baseline chart from ISO, so they can determine their own baselines and the best mounting positions for their sensors. The table shows the different standards for severity for different machine classes. These standards detail the baseline vibration and show the best place to mount the sensor based on the machine type.

Click here for more information on the benefits of condition monitoring.

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CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is an authorized  Balluff distributor in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Indiana.

In addition to distribution, we design and fabricate complete engineered systems, including hydraulic power units, electrical control panels, pneumatic panels & aluminum framing. Our advanced components and system solutions are found in a wide variety of industrial applications such as wind energy, solar energy, process control and more.

Building Blocks of the Smart Factory Now More Economical, Accessible

Guest Contributor: Balluff

A smart factory is one of the essential components in Industry 4.0. Data visibility is a critical component to ultimately achieve real-time production visualization within a smart factory. With the advent of IIoT and big-data technologies, manufacturers are finally gaining the same real-time visibility into their enterprise performance that corporate functions like finance and sales have enjoyed for years.

The ultimate feature-rich smart factory can be defined as a flexible system that self-optimizes its performance over a network and self-adapts to learn and react to new conditions in real-time. This seems like a farfetched goal, but we already have the technology and knowhow from advances developed in different fields of computer science such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. These technologies are already successfully being used in other industries like self-driving cars or cryptocurrencies.

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Fig: Smart factory characteristics (Source: Deloitte University Press)

Until recently, the implementation or even the idea of a smart factory was elusive due to the prohibitive costs of computing and storage. Today, advancements in the fields of machine learning and AI and easy accessibility to cloud solutions for analytics, such as IBM Watson or similar companies, has made getting started in this field relatively easy.

One of the significant contributors in smart factory data visualization has been the growing number of IO-Link sensors in the market. These sensors not only produce the standard sensor data but also provide a wealth of diagnostic data and monitoring while being sold at a similar price point as non-IO-Link sensors. The data produced can be fed into these smart factory systems for condition monitoring and preventive maintenance. As they begin to produce self-monitoring data, they become the lifeblood of the smart factory.

Components

The tools that have been used in the IT industry for decades for visualizing and monitoring server load and performance can be easily integrated into the existing plant floor to get seamless data visibility and dashboards. There are two significant components of this system: Edge gateway and Applications.

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Fig: An IIoT system

Edge Gateway

The edge gateway is the middleware that connects the operation technology and Information technology. It can be a piece of software or hardware and software solutions that act as a universal protocol translator.

As shown in the figure, the edge gateway can be as simple as something that dumps the data in a database or connects to cloud providers for analytics or third-party solutions.

Applications

One of the most popular stacks is Influxdb to store the data, Telegraf as the collector, and Grafana as a frontend dashboard.

These tools are open source and give customers the opportunity to dive into the IIoT and get data visibility without prohibitive costs. These can be easily deployed into a small local PC in the network with minimal investment.

The applications discussed in the post:

Grafana

Telegraf

Influxdb

Node-red Tutorial

CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is an authorized  Balluff distributor in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Indiana.

In addition to distribution, we design and fabricate complete engineered systems, including hydraulic power units, electrical control panels, pneumatic panels & aluminum framing. Our advanced components and system solutions are found in a wide variety of industrial applications such as wind energy, solar energy, process control and more.

 

How Cameras Keep Tire Manufacturers From Spinning Their Wheels
Guest contributor: John Tackacs, BalluffTires being transported between the curing presses and the staging area before their final inspection often become clustered together. This jam up can cause imperfections to the tires and damage to the conveyors. To alleviate this problem, some tire manufacturers have installed vision systems on their conveyors to provide visual feedback to their production and quality teams, and alert them when the tires start to get too close together.

A vision system can show you alerts back in your HMI by using inputs and outputs built into the camera or use an IO-Link port on the camera to attach a visual display, for example a SmartLight with audible and flashing alerts enabled. Once you see these alerts, the PLC can easily fix the issue from the program or a maintenance worker or engineer can quickly respond to the alert.

Widespread use of smart vision cameras with various pixel options has become a trend in tire manufacturing. In additional to giving an early alert to bunching problems, vision systems can also capture pictures and data to verify that tires were cleared all the way into final inspection. Although tire machine builders are being asked to incorporate vision systems into their machines during the integration process, it is more likely for systems to be added in plants at the application level.

Vision systems can improve production throughput, quality issues and record production data about the process for analytics and analysis down the road. Remember a tire plant usually consists of these processes in their own large section of the plant and involves many machines in each section:

  • Mixing
  • Tire Prep
  • Tire Build
  • Curing
  • Final Inspection

Each one of these process areas in a plant can benefit from the addition of vision systems. Here are a few examples:

  • Mixing areas can use cameras as they mill rubber and detect when rubber sheets are off the rollers and to look for engraved information embedded in the rubber material for logistics and material flow to the proper processes.
  • Tire Prep can use cameras to ensure all the different strand colors of steel cords are embedded or painted on the rubber plies before going to tire build process.
  • Tire Build can use vision to detect the side-wall beads are facing the right direction and reading the embedded position arrows on the beads before tire plies are wrapped around them.
  • Curing area can use vision to monitor tire clusters on conveyors and make sure they are not too close to each other by using the measuring tool in the camera software.
  • Final Inspection can use vision to read barcodes, QR codes, detect colors of embossed or engraved serial numbers, detect different color markings and shape of the markings on the tire.

The use of machine vision systems can decrease quality issues by pinpointing errors before they make it through the entire production process without detection.

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CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is an authorized  Balluff distributor in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Indiana.

In addition to distribution, we design and fabricate complete engineered systems, including hydraulic power units, electrical control panels, pneumatic panels & aluminum framing. Our advanced components and system solutions are found in a wide variety of industrial applications such as wind energy, solar energy, process control and more.

Mobile Equipment Manufacturers: Is It Time to Make the Switch to Inductive Position Sensors?
Guest contributor: ROBERT CRUMLEY

Manufacturers of mobile equipment are tasked with the never-ending pursuit of making their machines more productive while adhering to the latest safety regulations, and all at less cost. To help achieve these goals, machines today use electronic control modules to process inputs and provide outputs that ultimately control the machine functions. Yet with all the changes in recent years, one component left over from that earlier era remains in regular use — the mechanical switch.  Switches offered a variety of levers, rollers, and wands for actuation, and many were sealed for an IP67 rating for outdoor use, but they came with an array of problems, including damaged levers, contact corrosion, arcing concerns, dirt or grain dust ingress, and other environmental hazards. Still, overall they were an acceptable and inexpensive way to receive position feedback for on/off functions.

Today, mechanical switches can still be found on machines used for boom presence, turret location, and other discrete functions. But are they the right product for today’s machines?

The original design parameters may have required the switch to drive the load directly, and therefore a rating of 10A@240V might be a good design choice for the relay/diode logic circuits of the past. But a newly designed machine may be switching mere milliamps through the switch into the control module. Does the legacy switch have the proper contact plating material for the load today? Switches use rare metals such as rhodium, palladium, platinum, gold, and silver in attempts to keep the contact resistance low and to protect those contacts from corrosion. Consequently, as China pursues Nonroad Stage IV standards, these metals, some also used in catalytic converters, have sharply increased in price, leading to substantial cost increases to switch manufacturers and ultimately switch users.

A better approach to position feedback for today’s mobile machines is the inductive position sensor. Inductive sensors offer a sealed, non-contact alternative to mechanical switches. Sensing ferrous and non-ferrous metals without physical contact, they eliminate many of the field problems of the past, and non-metallic substances such as water, dirt, and grain dust, do not affect the operation. These qualities make the sensor very suitable for the harsh conditions found in agricultural and construction environments.

Inductive proximity sensors come in a variety of form factors:

Threaded cylindrical – With zinc-plated brass or stainless-steel housings, the threaded barrel styles are popular for their ease of mounting and gap adjustment.  

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Low profile rectangular – These “flatpack” style sensors are great under seats for operator presence.

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Block designs – The compact, cubed package is ideal for larger sensing ranges.

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Large cylindrical – These large “pancake” style sensors are great for detecting suspension movements and other applications requiring extreme ranges.

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Inductive position sensors are more than just a discrete product used for detecting linkage, operator presence, or turret stops; They can also perform the duties of a speed sensor by counting teeth (or holes) to determine the RPM of a rotating shaft. Other models offer analog outputs to provide a continuous feedback signal based on the linear location of a metal linkage or lever. Safety rated outputs, high temperatures, and hazardous area options are some of the many product variants available with this electromagnetic technology.
So, perhaps it’s time to review that legacy switch and consider an inductive sensor?
To learn how an inductive position sensor performs its magic, please take a look at an earlier blog:

Basic Operating Principle of an Inductive Proximity Sensor

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CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is an authorized  Balluff distributor in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Indiana.

In addition to distribution, we design and fabricate complete engineered systems, including hydraulic power units, electrical control panels, pneumatic panels & aluminum framing. Our advanced components and system solutions are found in a wide variety of industrial applications such as wind energy, solar energy, process control and more.

Adding a higher level of visibility to older automation machines

It’s never too late to add more visibility to an automation machine.

In the past, when it came to IO-Link opportunities, if the PLC on the machine was a SLC 500, a PLC-5, or worse yet, a controller older than I, there wasn’t much to talk about. In most of these cases, the PLC could not handle another network communication card, or the PLC memory was maxed, or it used a older network like DeviceNet, Profibus or ASi that was maxed. Or it was just so worn out that it was already being held together with hope and prayer. But, today we can utilize IIoT and Industry 4.0 concepts to add more visibility to older machines.

IIOT and Industry 4.0 have created a volume of products that can be utilized locally at a machine, rather than the typical image of Big Data. There are three main features we can utilize to add a level of visibility: Devices to generate data, low cost controllers to collect and analyze the data, and visualization of the data.

Data Generating Devices

In today’s world, we have many devices that can generate data outside of direct communication to the PLC.  For example, in an Ethernet/IP environment, we can put intelligent devices directly on the EtherNet/IP network, or we can add devices indirectly by using technologies like IO-Link, which can be more cost effective and provide the same level of data. These devices can add monitoring of temperature, flow, pressure, and positioning data that can reduce downtime and scrap. With these devices connected to an Ethernet-based protocol, data can be extracted from them without the old PLC’s involvement.  Utilizing JSON, OPC UA, MQTT, UDP and TCP/IP, the data can be made available to a secondary controller.

Linux-Based Controllers

An inexpensive Raspberry Pi could be used as the secondary controller, but Linux-based open controllers with industrial specifications for temperature, vibration, etc. are available on the market. These lower cost controllers can then be utilized to collect and analyze the data on the Ethernet protocol. With a Linux based “sandbox” system, many programming software packages could be loaded, i.e. Node-Red, Codesys, Python, etc., to create the needed logic.

Visualization of Data

Now that the data is being produced, collected and analyzed, the next step is to view the information to add the extra layer of visibility to the process of an older machine. Some of the programming software that can be loaded into the Linux-based systems, which have a form a visualization, like a dashboard (Node-Red) or an HMI feel (Codesys). This can be displayed on a low-cost monitor on the floor near the machine.

By utilizing the products used in the “big” concepts of IIOT and Industry 4.0, you can add a layer of diagnostic visualization to older machines, that allows for easier maintenance, reduced scrap, and predictive maintenance.

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CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is an authorized  Balluff distributor in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Indiana.

In addition to distribution, we design and fabricate complete engineered systems, including hydraulic power units, electrical control panels, pneumatic panels & aluminum framing. Our advanced components and system solutions are found in a wide variety of industrial applications such as wind energy, solar energy, process control and more.

Why RFID is the VIP of 2019
Guest Contributor, Wolfgang Kratzenberg, Balluff

The “most popular” annual lists don’t usually come out until the end of the year, but I think it is worth mentioning now three applications that have gained substantial momentum this year. With the Smart Factory concept being driven around the globe, RFID has emerged from the shadows and taken its place in the spotlight. The demand for a larger amount of data, more security, and increased visibility into the production process has launched RFID into a leading role when it comes to automation.

Machine Access Control

When considering RFID being utilized for access control, they think about readers located near doorways either outside the building or within the plant. While those readers operate much like the industrial readers, they typically cannot communicate over an industrial communication protocol like Ethernet/IP, Profinet, or IO-Link.  With an industrial access control reader one can limit access to HMIs, PLCs, and various control systems by verifying the user and allowing access to the appropriate controls.  This extra layer of security also ensures operator accountability by identifying the user.

Machine Tool ID

RFID has been used in machining centers for decades. However, it was used mostly in larger scale operations where there were acres of machines and hundreds of tools. Today it’s being used in shops with as few as one machine. The ROI is dependent on the number of tool changes in a shift; not necessarily just the number of machines and the number of tools in the building. The greater the number of tool changes, the greater the risk of data input errors, tool breakage, and even a crash.

Content verification

Since RFID is capable of reading through cardboard and plastic, it is commonly used to verify the contents of a container. Tags are fixed to the critical items in the box, like a battery pack or bag of hardware, and passed through a reader to verify their presence. If, in this case, two tags are not read at the final station then the box can be opened and supplied with the missing part before it ships. This prevents an overload on aftersales support and ensures customers get what they ordered.

While RFID is still widely used to address Work in Process (WIP), asset tracking, and logistics applications, the number of alternative applications involving RFID has skyrocketed due to an increase in demand for actionable data.  Manufacturing organizations around the world have standardized on RFID as a solution in cases where accountability, reliability and quality are critical.

 

cropped-cmafh-logo-with-tagline-caps.pngCMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is an authorized  Balluff distributor in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Indiana.

In addition to distribution, we design and fabricate complete engineered systems, including hydraulic power units, electrical control panels, pneumatic panels & aluminum framing. Our advanced components and system solutions are found in a wide variety of industrial applications such as wind energy, solar energy, process control and more.

How to Select the Best Lighting Techniques for Your Machine Vision Application

Guest contributor,  Dan Simmons, Balluff

The key to deploying a robust machine vision application in a factory automation setting is ensuring that you create the necessary environment for a stable image.  The three areas you must focus on to ensure image stability are: lighting, lensing and material handling.  For this blog, I will focus on the seven main lighting techniques that are used in machine vision applications.

On-Axis Ring Lighting

On-axis ring lighting is the most common type of lighting because in many cases it is integrated on the camera and available as one part number. When using this type of lighting you almost always want to be a few degrees off perpendicular (Image 1A).  If you are perpendicular to the object you will get hot spots in the image (Image 1B), which is not desirable. When the camera with its ring light is tilted slightly off perpendicular you achieve the desired image (Image 1C).

Off-Axes Bright Field Lighting

Off-axes bright field lighting works by having a separate LED source mounted at about 15 degrees off perpendicular and having the camera mounted perpendicular to the surface (Image 2A). This lighting technique works best on mostly flat surfaces. The main surface or field will be bright, and the holes or indentations will be dark (Image 2B).

Dark Field Lighting

Dark field lighting is required to be very close to the part, usually within an inch. The mounting angle of the dark field LEDs needs to be at least 45 degrees or more to create the desired effect (Image 3A).  In short, it has the opposite effect of Bright Field lighting, meaning the surface or field is dark and the indentations or bumps will be much brighter (Image 3B).

Back Lighting

Back lighting works by having the camera pointed directly at the back light in a perpendicular mount.  The object you are inspecting is positioned in between the camera and the back light (Image 4A).  This lighting technique is the most robust that you can use because it creates a black target on a white background (Image 4B).

Diffused Dome Lighting

Diffused dome lighting, aka the salad bowl light, works by having a hole at the top of the salad bowl where the camera is mounted and the LEDs are mounted down at the rim of the salad bowl, pointing straight up which causes the light to reflect off of the curved surface of the salad bowl and it creates very uniform reflection (Image 5A).  Diffused dome lighting is used when the object you are inspecting is curved or non-uniform (Image 5B). After applying this lighting technique to an uneven surface or texture, hotspots and other sharp details are deemphasized, and it creates a sort of matte finish to the image (Image 5C).

Diffused On-Axis Lighting

Diffused on-axis lighting, or DOAL, works by having a LED light source pointed at a beam splitter and the reflected light is then parallel with the direction that the camera is mounted (Image 6A).  DOAL lighting should only be used on flat surfaces where you are trying to diminish very shiny parts of the surface to create a uniformed image.  Applications like DVD, CD, or silicon wafer inspection are some of the most common uses for this type of lighting.

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Image 6A

 

Structured Laser Line Lighting

Structured laser line lighting works by projecting a laser line onto a three-dimensional object (Image 7A), resulting in an image that gives you information on the height of the object.  Depending on the mounting angle of the camera and laser line transmitter, the resulting laser line shift will be larger or smaller as you change the angle of the devices (Image 7B).  When there is no object the laser line will be flat (Image 7C).

Real Life Applications 

The images below, (Image 8A) and (Image 8B) were used for an application that requires the pins of a connector to be counted. As you can see, the bright field lighting on the left does not produce a clear image but the dark field lighting on the right does.

This next example (Image 9A) and (Image 9B) was for an application that requires a bar code to be read through a cellophane wrapper.  The unclear image (Image 9A) was acquired by using an on-axis ring light, while the use of dome lighting (Image 9B) resulted in a clear, easy-to-read image of the bar code.

This example (Image 10A), (Image 10B) and (Image 10C) highlights different lighting techniques on the same object. In the (Image 10A) image, backlighting is being used to measure the smaller hole diameter.  In image (Image 10B) dome lighting is being used for inspecting the taper of the upper hole in reference to the lower hole.  In (Image 10C) dark field lighting is being used to do optical character recognition “OCR” on the object.  Each of these could be viewed as a positive or negative depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

 

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CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is an authorized  Balluff distributor in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Indiana.

In addition to distribution, we design and fabricate complete engineered systems, including hydraulic power units, electrical control panels, pneumatic panels & aluminum framing. Our advanced components and system solutions are found in a wide variety of industrial applications such as wind energy, solar energy, process control and more.

Boost Connectivity with Non-Contact Couplings

Guest contributor, Shishir Rege, Balluff

In press shops or stamping plants, downtime can easily cost thousands of dollars in productivity. This is especially true in the progressive stamping process where the cost of downtime is a lot higher as the entire automated stamping line is brought to a halt.

BIC presse detail 231013

Many strides have been made in modern stamping plants over the years to improve productivity and reduce the downtime. This has been led by implementing lean philosophies and adding error proofing systems to the processes. In-die-sensing is a great example, where a few inductive or photo-eye sensors are added to the die or mold to ensure parts are seated well and that the right die is in the right place and in the right press. In-die sensing almost eliminated common mistakes that caused die or mold damages or press damages by stamping on multiple parts or wrong parts.

In almost all of these cases, when the die or mold is replaced, the operator must connect the on-board sensors, typically with a multi-pin Harting connector or something similar to have the quick-connect ability. Unfortunately, often when the die or mold is pulled out of the press, operators forget to disconnect the connector. The shear force excreted by the movement of removing the die rips off the connector housing. This leads to an unplanned downtime and could take roughly 3-5 hours to get back to running the system.

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Another challenge with the multi-conductor connectors is that over-time, due to repeated changeouts, the pins in the connectors may break causing intermittent false trips or wrong die identification. This can lead to serious damages to the system.

Both challenges can be solved easily with the use of a non-contact coupling solution. The non-contact coupling, also known as an inductive coupling solution, is where one side of the connectors called “Base” and the other side called “Remote” exchange power and signals across an air-gap. The technology has been around for a long time and has been applied in the industrial automation space for more than a decade primarily in tool changing applications or indexing tables as a replacement for slip-rings. For more information on inductive coupling here are a few blogs (1) Inductive Coupling – Simple Concept for Complex Automation Part 1,  (2) Inductive Coupling – Simple Concept for Complex Automation Part 2

For press automation, the “Base” side can be affixed to the press and the “Remote” side can be mounted on a die or mold, in such a way that when the die is placed properly, the two sides of the coupler can be in the close proximity to each other (within 2-5mm). This solution can power the sensors in the die and can help transfer up to 12 signals. Or, with IO-Link based inductive coupling, more flexibility and smarts can be added to the die. We will discuss IO-Link based inductive coupling for press automation in an upcoming blog.

Some advantages of inductive coupling over the connectorized solution:

  • Since there are no pins or mechanical parts, inductive coupling is a practically maintenance-free solution
  • Additional LEDs on the couplers to indicate in-zone and power status help with quick troubleshooting, compared to figuring out which pins are bad or what is wrong with the sensors.
  • Inductive couplers are typically IP67 rated, so water ingress, dust, oil, or any other environmental factor does not affect the function of the couplers
  • Alignment of the couplers does not have to be perfect if the base and remote are in close proximity. If the press area experiences drastic changes in humidity or temperature, that would not affect the couplers.
  • There are multiple form factors to fit the need of the application.

In short, press automation can gain a productivity boost, by simply changing out the connectors to non-contact ones.

 

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CMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is an authorized  Balluff distributor in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Indiana.

In addition to distribution, we design and fabricate complete engineered systems, including hydraulic power units, electrical control panels, pneumatic panels & aluminum framing. Our advanced components and system solutions are found in a wide variety of industrial applications such as wind energy, solar energy, process control and more.

Improve Your Feeder Bowl System (and Other Standard Equipment) with IO-Link

Guest contributor: Tom Rosenberg, Balluff

One of the most common devices used in manufacturing is the tried and true feeder bowl system. Used for decades, feeder bowls take bulk parts, orient them correctly and then feed them to the next operation, usually a pick-and-place robot. It can be an effective device, but far too often, the feeder bowl can be a source of cycle-time slowdowns. Alerts are commonly used to signal when a feed problem is occurring but lack the exact cause of the slow down.

feeder bowl

A feed system’s feed rate can be reduced my many factors. Some of these include:

  • Operators slow to add parts to the bowl or hopper
  • Hopper slow to feed the bowl
  • Speeds set incorrectly on hopper, bowl or feed track
  • Part tolerance drift or feeder tooling out of adjustment

With today’s Smart IO-Link sensors incorporating counting and timing functions, most of the slow-down factors can be easily seen through an IIoT connection. Sensors can now time how long critical functions take. As the times drift from ideal, this information can be collected and communicated upstream.

A common example of a feed system slow-down is a slow hopper feed to the bowl. When using Smart IO-Link sensors, operators can see specifically that the hopper feed time is too long. The sensor indicates a problem with the hopper but not the bowl or feed tracks. Without IO-Link, operators would simply be told the overall feed system is slow and not see the real problem. This example is also true for the hopper in-feed (potential operator problem), feed track speed and overall performance. All critical operations are now visible and known to all.

For examples of Balluff’s smart IO-Link sensors, check out our ADCAP sensor.

 

cropped-cmafh-logo-with-tagline-caps.pngCMA/Flodyne/Hydradyne is an authorized  Balluff distributor in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Northern Indiana.

In addition to distribution, we design and fabricate complete engineered systems, including hydraulic power units, electrical control panels, pneumatic panels & aluminum framing. Our advanced components and system solutions are found in a wide variety of industrial applications such as wind energy, solar energy, process control and more.