In a short time the conveyor manufacturer Werfring, based in Marz, Austria, has become a renowned manufacturer of conveying systems for the beverage and foodstuff industry.
In bottling plants buffer stations are used between the individual work stations to compensate for possible differences or fluctuations in productivity, or brief interruptions at the stations. At typical accumulation buffers, some containers can end up stuck in the buffer, undetected, for a long time. These ‘intermediate stores’ are a problem particularly in the dairy and beverage industries, as effective monitoring and traceability of the batch is vital.
For this purpose several conveyor chains of the necessary size and number are setup beside each other on the buffer table and operated separately. Each individual container has a defined position on the conveyor chain and is ready for controlled further transportation. Size, performance and buffer time can be specifically designed to suit customer wishes with the new FIFO buffer table. In principle the whole concept is an impressively simple idea, an idea that is also very powerful due to the use of the modern controller and actuator design.
This buffer table is a universal concept due to the flexibility of the design.
Also a hit as a loading station
In addition to the actual task as a FIFO accumulation table, this new design is also suitable for use as a loading station for the efficient manual loading for small packaging machines. The experience in a specific application brought an astounding insight.
If loading was directly onto moving conveyor belt, max. 60 units per minute could be achieved. However, on the usage of the new buffer table as a loading station, the belt to be loaded is stationary, the resulting easing of the task produced a loading rate of up to 80 units per minute.
Self-controlling actuator system
The drives on the FIFO accumulation table operate in control terms as an autonomous system. Digital servo axes are used to drive the individual transport chains; these digital servo axes are controlled by Stober SDS5000 Servo drives in a multiple axis configuration. Due to the integrated PLC function, these inverters can adopt an electronic line shaft throughout. For this reason an additional PLC is not required to control the functionality.
A further plus: Due to the integrated internet connection, Werfring can offer its customer secure remote maintenance of the complete actuator system.
Synergy of competences
This cost-saving solution for the complete functional control using the power electronics intelligence was developed jointly with Stober. As a system supplier, Stober has all the necessary components, from the software solution to the complete geared actuator system, available in its modular product range from in-house development and manufacture.
Stober Drives Stand D1120
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