Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings

Software Combo Helps Design Teams Work Simultaneously

By Laura Carrabine | September 29, 2011

Share

Kliklok-Woodman is a leading designer of food-packaging equipment and has customers in the bakery, snack food, confectionery, and frozen and prepared food industries. The company developed a packaging machine called the CELOX Endloader Cartoner. It sits at the end of a production line and fills cartons with packaged foods and then seals them.

Motion Analyzer
Motion Analyzer is a digital modeling and simulation tool that helps size and select optimal motion systems – ones that use the appropriate amount of energy and achieves the specified speed and throughput.

Each machine has a flap-kicker, a finger-like device that deflects the flaps of each carton outward to ensure the product is smoothly loaded into the carton. The original flap-kicker was powered by a pneumatic cylinder, which meant that it would wear down at a quicker pace than a servo-driven mechanism when used at high speeds.

So when a customer requested a CELOX with a flap-kicker to operate reliably at speeds up to 325 cartons/min, Kliklok-Woodman engineers went to work designing a servo-driven flap-kicker. They used Allen-Bradley Motion Analyzer software from Rockwell Automation. Motion Analyzer is a digital modeling and simulation tool that helps size and select an optimal motion system – one that uses the appropriate amount of energy and achieves the specified speed and throughput. The software also reduces the time required to design, develop, and deliver a new machine.

The design engineers use SolidWorks 3D CAD software to create mechanical designs. Rockwell Animation and Dassault Systemes formed a strategic partnership to link their mechanical, controls, and electrical design software packages. SolidWorks integrates with Motion Analyzer through API calls which provide a live link between the two packages.

Solidworks
SolidWorks
is integrated with Motion Analyzer to help machine designers digitally prototype a machine.

The design team created motion profiles of the servo-driven flap-kicker in Motion Analyzer, and then transferred the profiles to SolidWorks to visualize how the machine moved. SolidWorks calculated the torque required to move the load through its profile, which Motion Analyzer used to size and select motors and drives. The integration between the two software products helped the designers choose an optimal solution for the specific application.

By digitally modeling and prototyping machine designs, mechanical, electrical, and control engineers collaborated earlier in the design phase. In this case, Kliklok-Woodman shortened the design phase of the new CELOX machine by combining electrical and mechanical design into one step. Motion Analyzer helped the mechanical engineers size the motor and gearbox simultaneously.

Kliklok-Woodman estimated it cut design time by one-third compared to using manual calculations and trial-and-error methods for finding the right motor size. Using Motion Analyzer also eliminated the material costs the company would have incurred if it had built a new flap kicker to test different motor sizes.

CELOX Endloader Cartoner
The CELOX Endloader Cartoner
uses advanced motion controls for fast product changeovers.

In addition Kliklok-Woodman engineers chose an Allen-Bradley B310-MP-Series Food Grate (MPF) servo motor to meet the food manufacturer’s high-performance demands in a small space. The motor can withstand high-pressure, caustic wash-downs, and is more reliable than the pneumatic cylinder.

The CELOX integrates the MPF servo motor with other solutions to deliver motions precision, accuracy, and reliability.  These include Allen-Bradley Kinex 6000 multi-axis servo drives to allow easy speed and position adjustments and fast product changeovers. An Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus 1000 touch-screen operator interface allows employees to monitor machine activity including status and diagnostics.

Kliklok-Woodman
www.kliklok.com

Rockwell Automation
www.ab.rockwellautomation.com

::Design World::


Filed Under: 3D CAD, Packaging, Software

 

Tell Us What You Think!

Related Articles Read More >

PROSTEP expands cooperation with Siemens Digital Industries Software
Siemens’ NX delivers greater cross-discipline collaboration and knowledge capture
55417-edgeConnectoren_V3.0_05-2022_cmyk_300dpi
edgeConnector product family from Softing now include a REST API
Rockwell Automation offers new online capabilities with industrial automation software

DESIGN GUIDE LIBRARY

“motion

Enews Sign Up

Motion Control Classroom

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Pushing performance: Adding functionality to terminal blocks
  • Get to Know Würth Industrial Division
  • Renishaw next-generation FORTiS™ enclosed linear encoders offer enhanced metrology and reliability for machine tools
  • WAGO’s smartDESIGNER Online Provides Seamless Progression for Projects
  • Epoxy Certified for UL 1203 Standard
  • The Importance of Industrial Cable Resistance to Chemicals and Oils

Design World Podcasts

June 12, 2022
How to avoid over engineering a part
See More >
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • Advertising
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Engineering White Papers
  • LEAP AWARDS

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings