Built with pride #3
PLC Engineering:
the brain of the machine
If you can imagine it, a machine can probably do it better. Even the craziest ideas are possible. And that’s why our PLC engineers design the brain of the machine. This design process runs parallel to mechanical engineering. Control involves gathering information, passing data, and programming decisions based on that data.
The control system is also set up in a modular way, completely according to the VHM philosophy. Jeroen: “we actually develop cubes that independently perform a function or control machine parts, and overall we ensure that the cubes can connect to each other. This is how VHM machines come to life.”
The modular thinking also made it possible in the control area to divide the project among the PLC engineers involved. Robin took care of the weighing belt part, Wilfred the EvenFlow and Jeroen the Tipr with tilting part. This way you work closely together on one project. After all, the same is expected of the machine parts.
Robin explains, “The biggest challenge with this particular project and the biggest innovation is in the precision of the weighing you want to achieve. Weighing belts are a familiar principle. But the application in this concrete plan and with the desired goal; to be able to empty a cubic box by weight, is an entirely new concept in the industry.”
A concrete challenge that the control development encountered included the large motor capacity. Jeroen: “admittedly a luxury that this motor can tilt to 1 degree exactly, but at the same time the motor is so strong that it can help the machine to self-destruct with one wrong control command.”
Software is frequently developed based on the idea; the machine may not do something unless it is given a specific command to do so. Software development is all about testing assumptions: testing, testing and more testing, followed by continuous adjustments.
A key milestone in the innovation process was achieving precise dosing at one kilo. Robin: “So that’s only five potatoes huh!”.
The next blog is – literally – ‘under construction’…. Until next week!
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Why we travel thousands of kilometers for a good conversation. If you know VHM Machinery even a little, you know that we love building machines. But perhaps even more importantly, we love listening to the people who work with them.
