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Industry: Chemical
Project: Automated Dispenser

Overview: An original equipment manufacturer of mixing and dispensing machines in North Carolina needed a powerful and flexible PLC to control a new design dispenser.    Their in-house engineering staff did not have the in-depth experience with PLC’s they considered necessary for a successful implementation in the time required to meet their marketing goals.  The Omron CPM2C-S with Compobus/S slaves allowed the distributed control their application demanded.  Cross Automation engineering support enabled rapid prototyping, with final product development achieved on time.
Development Objectives
  • Control dispensed amount based on high-speed pulse count input, or alternatively, on a preset time value with millisecond accuracy.
  • Communicate with the built-in personal computer for dispensing parameters, and alarm and status reports.
  • Dispense different quantities at different speeds to achieve 1% accuracy.  Speed determined by table lookups based on quantity.
  • Agitate holding tanks, each with a unique schedule.
  • Allow distributed control, with control relays located close to valves and mixing motors.
  • Allow manual control via an operator interface, with easy to use menus and data input, then convert those values to dispensing units.
System Solutions

  • Specified an Omron CPM2C-S PLC with an I/O expansion unit and two Compobus/S remote output modules. 

    For precise dispensing control, the PLC’s high-speed input handles 20,000 pulses/sec, and the timed interrupt has 1 millisecond resolution.

    Features two serial ports for communicating with the PC and OIT.

     High-speed bus master (Compobus/S with 1 ms update time) allowing distributed control of valves and agitation motors.

  • Developed program demonstrating proof-of-concept in one day with initial prototype completed in three days.

  • Worked closely with in-house engineers to create finished program incorporating all requested features and meeting all operational goals.

 Customer Benefits
  • Rapid product development without necessity of committing permanent engineering staff.
  • Flexible and powerful PLC supports several machine model variations with easy setup.
  • All design objectives met with no compromises via hardware and software perfect fit.

www.cross-automation.com
800.866.4568