Automation Machinery SolutionsWe were told, "Manual inspection is impossible with our faster line. How can we automatically inspect and laser mark in one pass?" The customer had several high-speed lines where products needed an FDA lot code and visual inspection before the filling station. Wastech Controls was asked to design and build two inspection stations. In addition to multiple container sizes and materials, each container needed to be rotated 360ยบ during inspection, laser marked with a lot code, and accepted or rejected. Technical requirements included high-speed material handling, motion control, machine vision, a diode-pumped YAG laser marking system, color touch-screen HMI, data acquisition, and VFD motor control.
Wastech worked with various suppliers, including Cognex (the leading supplier of industrial cameras and character recognition software), Lee laser, Allen Bradley (AB) industrial computers and PLCs, AB operator interface HMIs, AB motor controls, and Wastech stainless steel fabrication and material handling. Wastech engineers designed these machines and wrote the control software to integrate material handling, laser marking, and machine vision inspection. Software include Visual Basic / C++ program development and PLC programming to synchronize high-speed marking and inspection operations. |
