Integrated Motion Control
Applications
Smart Conveyor with Ultra5000 Intelligent Positioning Drive
A smart conveyor delivers products from an infeed conveyor to a flighted conveyor for further processing or packaging. The product flow from this infeed conveyor is asynchonous and must be adjusted to match the flights on the downstream machine. This is accomplished with an encoder coupled to the target machine which provides a position reference signal. Two external sensors are used to sense the leading edge of the incoming product and the position of the target flight. The correction belt is normally synchronized to the flighted conveyor speed. When a product is sensed, the servo calculates a correction distance and adjusts the motion of the correction belt to position the product correctly with respect to the target flight. The position correction can be accomplished either by changing the gear ratio to advance or retard the product, or by a move that adds to, or subtracts from the synchronous belt speed.
Rockwell Automation Solution
An Ultra5000 Intelligent Positioning Drive controls a brushless motor to drive the belt between the infeed conveyor and the flighted conveyor. The Ultra5000 uses the position reference signal from the encoder and calculates a correction distance with which to position the product for the target flight. The two interrupt inputs on the Ultra5000 capture the product and flight positions within 35 microseconds, which provides accurate position adjustments even at high product rates.