Homer Simpson Strikes Again

[BobLfoot 302]

I'll call this post Homer Simpson Strikes Again, because at the end of the day O found myself saying Duh what took me so long to think of the solution. The short system description is as follows: Machine A is processing parts at a rate of between 240 and 320 ppm depending on UPC Code. Machine A is fed by Conveyors 1,2 & 3. They are fed by a singulization screw. So product flow is from Scrw to 3 to 2 to 1 to A. An analog output from Machine A comes to the PLC which must then send speed commands to the Conveyors and screw to keep machine A fully loaded. The problem is this. Machine A was receiving air gaps and yet speed ing up conveyors apepared to have no effect. What I realized was that I had several PE's which could be used to count parts er minute if I wrote some code. This allowed me to see the fruits of prgram changes and determine that I had a bad torque setting on one of the conveyor drives. Lesson to be learned. Sometimes the data we need to define how our system is operating is right in front of us if we look at what sensors we have and how they could be used, not how theya re used.

[TimWilborne 108]

Yes, sometimes it just jumps out and hits you