Agricultural activity is, historically, one of the pillars of the Brazilian economy, accounting for more than 27% of the national GDP. The third largest food producer in the world, Brazil is, according to Embrapa, the largest producer of sugar and coffee, the largest exporter of corn and the nation that produces the most soybeans, responsible for 50% of the world market for this grain. To store and transport this poignant production, the national industry invests in high technology to ensure qualityand integrityat different stages of the processing of these goods.
Among these steps is the packaging process, carried out by machines that demand precision, performance and availability. For 40 yearsdeveloping process control and automation equipment and solutions for different industry segments, Altus has a complete line of products capable of meeting the specifications of the most varied types of machines. Today, the main national packaging machine manufacturers use Altus technology and engineering intelligence to guarantee the high performance of their machines.
The solution applied
Recently, our OEM team, made up of specialists with great technical knowledge and extensive experience in the development, optimization and retrofit of machines, worked on the modeling and application of the control system for Novo Horizonte, one of the most traditional machine manufacturers in the state of São Paulo. The solution developed uses the advanced processing of the CLP XP325, a model from the Nexto Xpress of IoT-ready PLCs, for precise control of weight, filling, proportion of items and other important variables of the packaging process.
Due to their high level of connectivity, Xpress controllers can communicate with different devices, through a variety of embedded resources and the most widely used communication protocols in the industry. In the applied architecture, the controller interacts via the EtherNet/IP protocol with a HMI X2-BASE, used to insert recipes. With an ARM9 processor and multiple functions, the interface delivers efficiency and high performance for small and medium-sized applications.
To ensure that each package will have exactly the weight stipulated for it, the machine has an extremely precise volumetric analysis process. In the applied architecture, the PLC communicates with a frequency inverter from the Optidrive E3 via analog output 0-10. The equipment is used to control the motor responsible for activating the drawer-type doser, driven by pistons, which controls the volume of product shipped in each package.
Availability and savings with Altus technology
Além de garantir a produção de volumes uniformes, a arquitetura aplicada também permitiu ao cliente ter um controle extremamente ajuste sobre a quantidade de grãos inserida em cada pacote embalado. Esta alta precisão na pesagem de cada unidade embalada resultou em uma redução de 80% no desperdício de matéria prima.
Fábio Santana, a mechatronics engineer who works in the technical assistance and development area at Novo Horizonte, believes that reliability is the product's greatest asset. “The PLCs have been running for over 2 years and we have never had any problems with any parts, or any shipments for technical assistance,” says Fábio. In addition to this line of products that is already in operation, our team of specialists is also helping the customer to develop a new packaging machine that will feature even more precision to guarantee greater productivity and savings.
