This project was basically a method to hold small items of tooling in vertical storage to enable a quick way to retrieve the tooling. Each rack in the Carousel had an optical target that moved as the rack moved up or down. As the target went past the Optical Sensor a signal was sent to the PLC and the count increased by one. So as the Carousel moved the count was always increasing until the desired rack was in place. The operator chose the desired rack for the tooling needed. The PLC calculated the number of rack counts needed to arrive at the desired rack in the smallest number of moves and also determined the correct direction for the shortest number of rack counts, either going forward or backward to achieve this.
COMPONENTS
D0-06DR
I use this PLC because it has universal inputs for sourcing and sinking and relay outputs so that almost any combination of inputs and outputs are usable.
LEESON DRIVE
Leeson Speedmaster Drive for main electric motor on the Tooling Carousel.
C-MORE HMI
The operator used the MICRO version of the C-MORE HMI display to choose the desired rack for the tooling needed for production. The PLC program calculated the smallest number of racks needed to move to get to the desired rack. The PLC program determined if the forward direction or reverse direction was required to arrive at the desired rack and initiated the Speedmaster Drive to run the main drive motor to move the desired rack into place.
TOOLING CAROUSEL
The front view of the Tooling Carousel. The Carousel is on a vertical chain system. Each rack of the Carousel held a specific piece of tooling. Each rack was labeled and numbered.
BLOCK DIAGRAM
CONTROL PANEL FOR THE CAROUSEL
