Dalton Electrical had been maintaining and servicing an older thermo-forming machine for many years. Although the machine was still mechanically robust repairing electrical components had become arduous and sourcing replacement components was challenging.
The existing system consisted of an obsolete Siemens TI 505 PLC Rack, and a PC with custom motion control software.
Daltons installed a Siemens Failsafe S7-1200, which took care of the machine function, PID heating control, the motion control and profinet communications to the servo drive. This was coupled with an Ignition Edge project for operator interface and logging, giving the machine a new lease on life.
This project was featured in the August 2020 Get Current publication by Cuthbert Stewart.
