MOTION CONTROL APPLICATIONS
TECHCAB S.R.L. is a solid reality operating in the automation sector of industrial machines and systems, boasting a considerable number of applications created in various technological sectors related to the motion control field. A vast experience was gained over the years addressing issues such as:
- positioning
- on-the-fly tracking
- synchronization of axes by means of electric shafts
- synchronization of axes by means of cam profiles
- interpolated axes
This led the TECHCAB S.R.L. management team to invest significant resources in order to acquire adequate knowledge of SIMOTION, the brand new product that SIEMENS has launched on the market for automation components aimed at the motion control field. It comes in the C versions (standalone solution), D (solution integrated in the drive) and P (PC-based solution). By virtue of the applications it developed and the skills it gained in its ongoing collaboration with SIEMENS technicians, today TECHCAB S.R.L. can proudly offer itself as a strong partner for manufacturers of machines and systems that rely on SIMOTION to solve their automation problems. One example of this is the design of the HOT LABEL SILKSCREEN LINES for CARTES SRL, producing the software for creating
- hot label printing
- silkscreen printing
- flexo printing
GEMINI SERIES, GT360 SERIES
These are machines for finishing and producing labels with a tolerance of 0.02 mm at maximum speed (70 m/min for the GT series, 150 m/min for the GE series). The machine is composed of several modular units that can be ordered and configured by the end customer according to their needs (silkscreen printing, 1 to 3 foil hot printing, flexo printing, flat die, semi-rotary die, laser die). This created the need to design and create several modular electrical panels and software that can take into consideration all the possible variants of the machine configuration, so that parts of the program are only executed if the related component is present.
The hardware is by Siemens: Simotion-D axis control and Sinamics S120 drives. The choice of these components enabled a low energy consumption based on a 600Vdc bus to power the drives that drive the motors (an accelerating motor can take advantage of the current regenerated by a motor that is decelerating at that moment). The best performing machine has an installed power of 40kW and an average consumption of less than 10kW at maximum speeds.
Effective operator protection is achieved by implementing safety systems such as STO (Safe Torque Off), SS1 (Safe Stop), SBC (Safe Brake Control) and SLS (Safety Limited Speed), combining safety with the practical needs of the production phases. Each unit is equipped with a dedicated touchscreen control panel to facilitate the setting and adjustment of all parameters.
Combining high speed and high precision was made possible by recalculating at every step all the cams that manage the motors (30 motors are used on a medium-sized machine). Using a photocell to read the distance between two successive notches printed on the paper allows us to correct our motion profiles to centre the print in the desired position.
