Food & Bakeries

Continuous Motion Filling Machine 

UCS Automation will supply control system for the Filling machine above. The Operation of the machine will be designed to be continuous, with the Pot de-nesting, Filling, Foil application and Over lidding operations carried out whilst the containers are in motion, using Servo drives to match the pace of the Main conveyor. The control will be carried out using a Siemens S7300 based PLC system, together with Siemens Sinamics Servo system. The Operator interface will be via a Siemens 10” colour touch screen HMI.

The depositing machine will comprise of the following control elements:

• Main Conveyor drive motor;
• Pot De-nester c/w Servo Scroll, Pot clean and Low / empty pot detect;
• Servo Pacing no.1 system comprising:
  • 10 x Filling heads c/w flow meters,
  • Hopper c/w level control,
  • 10 x Foil Heat Seal units,
  • 10 x leak detect units,
• Foil application system comprising of a Servo and an inverter controlled drive;
• Coding station;
• 2 x Over-lid de-nesters c/w low lid detect;
• Sweep off station;
• Outfeed conveyor;
• Reject gate.

Design & Software

For the above project UCS Automation will supply all Electrical and software design requirements.

Upon completion of the project we will provide:

• Hard and soft copies of AutoCAD electrical schematics;
• Hard and soft copies of PLC software (fully commented);
• Hard and soft copies of HMI software;
• HMI operation manual;  
• Full parts list.

What was developed?

High speed Servo controlled Continuous Motion Filling Machine.

What previously existed in this field?

Previous Filling Machines were slower, with mechanically linked stations machines.

What are the advance / appreciable improvement?

Simplified mechanical design.

Flexible operator parameter variables.

Increase in production speeds.

Reduction in maintenance.

What were the technological uncertainties?

The main uncertainty was how to make sure that the Servo solution had the ability to cut, position and heat seal the foil lids at the speeds required.