The control philosophy is based around a central control panel housing the master PLC and associated hardware for the off-track functionality of the system. Each Smart Cart weigh carriage incorporates a small PLC unit providing independent speed control, anti-collision control, weight signal conditioning and positioning control. Communications from the master PLC panel are sent using a wireless blue-tooth system while power to the carriage drive is received via an enclosed copper Bus system which runs around the perimeter of the track.
The central control panel incorporates a PC based recipe handling and production scheduling system which sends individual recipe requirements to each carriage as a new bag is loaded. The carriage will then commence its cycle and feed weighment data back to the central panel for batch logging and data reporting.
A PC based SCADA system provides system and carriage monitoring together with a user friendly human machine interface.
For more information on Control And Automation talk to C J Waterhouse Co Ltd