MemoSpecificheVersione2 20130513 03-2 ENG

Mauro de Gennaro - Electronics Division

EATONNew reel feeder versionTechnical characteristics

Loading and operation procedures involve use of up to 4 independent, in line reels and an horizontal material transport belt corresponding to machine's cutting plane high.

Pneumatic block central shaft coil handling implemented by the frontal valve

Coil motorization achieved by inverter controlled three-phase AC motors capable of rotation reversal.

Coil alignment through manually adjustable deadlock placed on operator 's opposite side and by using gridlines.

Coil power supply control through:

o 250mm heigh balancer (500mm long magazine less than 1.239 mm theoretical maximum length) positioned on vertical rails equipped with replaceable cylinder in order to be able to use the an optimum weight fabric.

o oscillating pendulum suitable for material acceleration damping, provided with manually adjustable, lateral guiding blades

o ultrasound sensor designed for reel radius control

o optic sensor used for product presence control

o intuitive proximity sensors used for balancer hight 4 level control

Because we believe the balancer complicates and slows down material loading operations we intend to examine the possibility of balancer elimination, and implement a singular pendulum control as following:

o oscillating pendulum complete with manually adjustable lateral blades

o ultrasound sensor designed for reel radius control

o optic sensor used for product presence control

o intuitive proximity sensors used for pendulum pitch 4 level control

If the tests confirm concept validity, we propose to proceed with the latter solution

Coils that are going to be used must be previously wrapped without the use of adhesive tape bonding the material's inner flap to its own core; mechanisms for adhesive tape recognition will not be involved , their presence would rather create a balancer excessive tension that would break down all the material present on the conveyor, even that of other layers

Safety: will be ensured by closing of rear area and of two longitudinal optical barriers protecting the remaining perimeter surface.

Glossary (see image):

o “A” expansion central shaft

o “B” input return reel

o “C” balancer

o “B” output return reel

o “E” pendulum

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o “F” bobbin posterior frame

o “G” superior guide

o “H” inferior guide

Operation

First load: starting with the layer furthest to the machine, through reel independent movement, the required material can be unrolled in whatever desired direction in order to pass across the balancer, the material necessary for the passage through the dancer, and then brushing against the pendulum before reaching the conveyor belt. Using an available appropriate command , each layer, conveyor and reels will move simultaneously so already loaded material could be delivered to next reel allowing overlap with the upper layer.

In case the balancer solution will not be implemented the material shall not pass over the instrument in question.

Loading during production: even in only one layer, material absence is identified by a photoelectric cell and will result in machine operation stop and power supply interrupt. Before entering the danger zone, the operator will decommission barrier control by pressing related button and will replace the empty reel by joining extremity and exhausted bobbin edges. The machine will not initiate emergency status. After having performed the connection, strayed away from the danger zone and after re-enabling the security barriers by using related button, the operator may restore automatic operation using only one command placed on the power supply control panel, the cycle will resume from exact point of interruption by minimizing the downtime and limiting material waste.

In case the balancer solution will not be implemented, it would be easier and faster to make the connection and load the new reel material.

After produce evacuation: a suitable command for conveyor belt movement reversal will engage conveyor and reels for complete re-winding of unused material (of course with the condition that the material is still sufficiently adherent to the core to allow an effective rewind)

Protective barriers: during automatic operation, barriers placed around the feeder prevent access until the machine's power supply instant emergency stop is activated. During machine stop caused by lack of material or in case of machine shut-off, the operator is able to access the danger zone by pressing a barrier disregard button. This button will also disconnect the machine from it's power supply preventing an accidental automatic start-up. The machine will not initiate emergency status. Once the operator has stepped away from the danger zone, he must deactivate the barrier disregard function so he can restore automatic operation using a single command placed on the power supply control panel.

Balancer management: balancer presence strongly recommended by the customer will imply a greater difficulty in material loading, both for first and subsequent loads. This is because, unlike the current solution proposal, the operator must be able to change the material through balancer reels ( "B" - "C" - "D" in the image), a definitely more complex operation, more so when the material is thick and hard.

For this reason, it would be appropriate to implement the no balancer solution considering that adjustment according to bobbin radius is sufficiently accurate to compensate for minor pendulum travel (and thus small available material "magazine" ).

Motivation

Security: this machine has moving parts, automatic cycle unexpected movements may cause injury to operator's limbs. Considering that, a security access preventing barrier must be



installed. Emergency machine and feeder interrupts must also be implemented where necessary in order to induce operation shut-down in shortest possible time intervals. During load phase, power supply access may not be prevented. This is only allowed if the following two steps are completed:

o Safely prevent unexpected movement machine command induction and accidental operator control. In order to achieve this and meet customer requirements, machine feeder control line shut down is recommender avoiding machine emergency status inducement in order to provide a quick reboot.

o Allow feeder part movement only by manual control (therefore deliberate)

This change requires interface, system and horizontal carriage axis management machine software revision and is carried out especially for the acceleration of loading operations during production.

Machine restart after stop due to lack of material: the feeder will be equipped with a machine restart command needed to be carried out after the operator has cleared the danger area and enabled barrier ban.

Motorization: the 4 coils will be independently powered by the core following customer indications. We would like to point out that, in our opinion, the tangential-movement between conveyors is still the preferable solution for control effectiveness and for the maximum speed allowed to the operator; despite field and plating machine feeder observation, we have been forced to favour proposed customer indications. We would like to reaffirm that being a slower continuous cycle plating machine, problems well known to the customer about material management will be amplified 3-4 times, or rather the operator will be 3-4 times more engaged in reel change than he is with the plating machine. The operator will also take more time with respect to the current tangential movement unroll.

Centring hanwheels and adjustments: handweels will not be present and material path centring will be entrusted to manually adjusted lateral blades so it would be performed one time only for a size change and not during the operating cycle. Expansion shaft coil centring will be guaranteed by a support plate placed on the opposite side of the operator (manual handling) and a reference grid ruler.

Expansion shaft: choosing the use the most simple, reliable, and economical pneumatic shaft complete with compressed air filling frontal valve was also suggested by the customer,

Machine's control panel: since this is a standard machine well known on the market, no operation changes have been conducted except for the parts related to phase stop and product management without emergency fail.

Operative access: in order to accelerate operation the feed rotor will be designed more open than the one currently operational while ensuring operator safety through photoelectric barriers. In order to simplify the access, other security devices and operator side shutters will be eliminated.

Coil displacement: requested solution of having 3 in line reels and a fourth one under the 3 them would undermine conveyor belt effectiveness so the new feed rotor will have 4 in line coils and will all support the material on a single conveyor belt. Among the hundreds of installed applications, the conveyor belt has proven to give stabilize the material, an opposite effect to the one created by a tube and roller conveyor. Conveyor belt transport uniformity allows the same treatment of all coils in contrast with pipe transport, pipes not necessarily different from each other. Anyway, the new feed rotor overall dimensions shall not exceed those of currently installed rotor.

Single layer production batches: we believe the best solution is to use the coil closest to the machine



Balancer: balancer utilization is required for coil radius speed operation adjustment management. It's considered convenient uniform material transport during the feed cycle limiting to a minimum accelerations and decelerations that could produce coil break down. It does not seem necessary to have a "stock" material length equal to maximum "L" thanks to control accuracy; this allows a less bulky balancer manufacturing in order to facilitate operator access and also allows a smaller amount of material loading, action that's going to speed up further operations. Balancer design will allow different weight reel utilisation ( "C", see image) depending on material and customer recommendation.

In this regard, a single pendulum solution test is considered appropriate (using 4 inductive sensors as adjustment indicators to measure 4 different inclinations rather than 4 different balancer heights) relying on the fact that coil radius adjustment is more accurate than plate machine feeder adjustment, and if the solution is found more appropriate, we rely on this procedure in order to simplify and speed up the operation.

Connect the product to the core: identification of any adhesive tape on the core is very difficult and uncertain for application variability. In addition, guarantee of an adequately prompt stop related to this identification could be complex, costly and not necessarily effective for operation improvement. In addition, we have found that the majority of coils was not securely wrapped with tape to the core. Therefore, we believe that the new feeder should not be use with fixing tape on coils. To overcome this problem we have improved material deficiency operability and management.

Productivity: cannot be quantified in advance because it depends on material thickness and reel dimensions, but we believe to be higher than previously used feed rotor productivity previously used and also current feed rotor productivity. Comparison with the plating machine may not be made in any way, slower and continuous operation cycle are not comparable.


Author Version DateMauro de Gennaro 1.2 10/05/2013

Documents

MemoSpecificheVersione2 20130513 03-2 ENG