Reacting efficiently and flexibly to customers’ needs is indispensable for many furniture manufacturers and joineries. Fast and reliable format changes are a prerequisite for maximum machine availability and thus for high productivity.
Bus-based electronic position indicators from ELGO Electronic support the machine operator during manual format changes. Also, ensuring complete control and reliability with bidirectional communication of the values between machine control and adjustment unit.
It is often the case that stops, and guide plates are moved directly onto linear guides. With the bus-capable modular measuring and display system Z60-014 from ELGO Electronic, nominal, and actual positions of up to three axes can be processed and displayed simultaneously. The operator can change formats quickly and flexibly. The display receives the current position data via external magnetic sensors connected to the display unit. By coupling several devices, up to 100 axes can be adjusted.
The Z60-014 display is equipped with a serial RS485 interface for communication with the machine controller (PLC). In woodworking machines, where adjustments are carried out manually by the operator but monitored by a PLC, each linear adjustment unit is assigned a target position by the controller. The nominal values are transmitted to the position display and can be read there for each axis. Additionally, the measured actual values are read out by the PLC and the machine is only released after correct feedback of all manually set positions. The interface integration thus enables a high level of process reliability and rejects, or damaged format parts are avoided.
The Z60-014 display enables the operator to have three axes in view at the same time. Despite its compact design, the display has a sufficiently large LCD display that allows the operator to read the position values easily. Thanks to the stored target positions, format changes can be carried out manually quickly and easily.
The operator can choose which value he wants to be displayed for each axis: the current position, the deviation from the target position or the target value. Other parameters that are available separately for each axis and that can be individually programmed are parameters such as offset, tolerance window and the unit of measurement used.
