Gamble

I need something to detect a "short shot" in a plastic molding process. In our system the part is molded and then an arm picks up the part out of the mold, and then drops it onto a conveyor. I've been thinking that putting some sort of detection device on the arm would work well. The defect I need to detect is pretty small, and I think that a laser with a beam no more than 1mm in diameter could do the job. The problem is that I want to avoid thru-beam devices (since getting the part in between the tx and rx would be tricky), and the idea of a laser beam shooting off of a moving robotic arm is a bit scary. To complicate the matter the defect occurs on a curve. My bosses are cheap so a nice vision system is out of the question. They would like to see it done with a $100 IR sensor. I don't think that possible though. Any thoughts?

Thanks JRoss that works well.

I would like to get the K value of a timer and store it in a data register. Is there anyway to do this? For example if i have T0 set with K200 I would like to take that 200 and store it in register D0.

check this out. Some guys hooked up a robot to a Wii-mote, and use it to swing a tennis racket and sword.

In a program I have this instruction: [< K0 K3M26] When activated there is a number that will show up underneath it on the rightside much like a counter or timer. As I understand it, this is an OR instruction. Is K0 a constant value or is it a reference to some editable data? If it is a constant value then you are ORing with a 0 which is pointless. If it is editable data how can this be monitored? And K3M26 I don't understand at all. I'm fairly new to Mitsubishi PLC, and I have read through the FX programing manual and the MELSEC software manual.

Unfortunately we don't have the ability to monitor pressure in the mold. The only pressure we can monitor is that at the beginning the screw feed, and I am told that this is not precise enough.

Thanks for the suggestion Peter. I'll look into that.

I do a lot of work making test equipment for automotive parts, primarily made of plastic and for interiors. I'm trying to find a versatile device to use to mark each part as they pass tests. Maybe a stamp, punch, or sticker that will insure that the part was tested and passed. I'm open to many options but it must be versatile enough to install on different machines with different space requirements. The simpler the better. Is there anything like this out there? Any suggestions?

I recently went to a demonstraition of IAI's ROBO Cylinders, and they are really very nice actuators. I was wondering if anybody has any experiance with these things, and what people think of them. They pitch them as a replacement to air cylinders. I'm not so sure that they should replace all air cylinders, but there are definatly some aplications that would benifet from their use. They do claim some great cost savings over time though. Anyway I'm just looking for thoughts, and if you have not had the chance to play with one of these you should try to do so.