Roll Printer Sensor adjustment

As requested by the night shift technicians:

Roll Printer Sensor Set-up Adjustment Procedure

1. First determine if the "tick" mark is light or dark. You also have to consider whether the label media is a clear film or has a paper backing. For example, with a silver tick mark on clear media, you would want to choose the "light" switch setting and use a dark backing plate so that the colors contrast. See image.

 

 Also, one way to determine if the switch setting is correct is to align the tick mark on the sensor, then press foil pull/jog button. If the label stops immediately upon releasing the button, the switch setting may be incorrect-change it. It should pull for the fast time setting-whether or not it stops on the mark.

2. Second, the foil pull fast time must be set so that the label does not pass up the sensor in fast speed. Ideally, you will want to set the time so that once slow mode engages, you are about an inch to an inch and a half from the sensor.

This is so it can slowly approach the sensor and engage the brake. If it is moving too fast, it will not have time to stop accurately. For example, if you have the time set at 3.00 seconds and the label pulls very fast right past the tick mark, you should lower the time by a second or a half.

3. Set up the sensor so that it is approximately 3mm from the mark and be certain that the lens is pointed horizontally and not angled up or down. This provides the best range for "seeing" the mark.

4. To set the sensor sensitivity, release both label clamping brakes, roll the label back to the nearest mark until the sensor "sees" the mark. You will know because the LED's will react on the side of the sensor module. Set the brakes on both ends of the roll printer so it will stay on the mark. Now -using a small flat sensor adjustment screwdriver- adjust the screw in the middle hole until you get about a "5" reading. Depending on whether the mark is light or dark will determine whether or not the red "output" LED (on the side of the module) lights up. If it is on all the time, you will want to adjust it off. Similarly, if it is off when not on the mark, it should likely light up when it is on the mark. It all depends on the light or dark switch, but adjusting it until it functions flawlessly should not take very long if you remember these concepts.

Mp#12- I/O board

I changed out the board on Mp#12 as requested.  Dip switch settings match and all machine functions have been checked and are working.  Marty was told that he is welcome to start the press at his convenience but ghey may not have time today.

Triacs

We have several of the ITC brand temperature controllers that need new triacs for repair.

They are SanRex TG35E60.
They're about $8 each.

We have SCR's for the DME brand controllers but no triacs.

Have a great day!

Mp#1 Ejector Cylinder Leak

Mp#1 went down Thursday evening because of significant oil leaking from between the ram cylinder and the platen that the ejector cylinder is mounted to.

The mold is out now and oil has been cleaned up. I am not sure if the entire ejector block must be removed or if there is a trick to making an easier repair. When Kenny Hoskins comes in I will consult with his expertise on the matter.

I will post more soon.

Water system strainers

I went around and cleaned out the strainers. Most were not bad. About 70% had dirty water color such as this image.

Milacron 486 Valid Power issue

This is just a re-hash of the events regarding the power supply and battery issue we had with MP#5.

To summarize:

The symptoms we encountered were " Error E047" or no screen at all.

Initially, there was no screen at all. I changed the power supply with one from MRO to which it was not known to be good or bad...just another one. That brought up the E047 error.

Then upon checking power on the backplane at the test points, one of the +12 volt signals was not present.

We obtained another known to be new power supply and installed it and the +12 was then present on the backplane > however > the E047 would not clear.

We then replaced the back up lithium 3.6 volt battery and upon restarting the control, system booted as normal.

Checks of the analog circuits indicated that transducers were reading accurately at that point and we started the press for operational tests and production.

To summarize again:

1. battery must be good!
2. power supply must have all voltage signals present and testable on the backplane!

4.6.15 - Nissei control issues

MP#23-

We had a problem where somehow the upper range limit for setting the shot size got changed. We now presume that it may have been related to a low battery condition. The fix supposedly goes like this:

1. In manual operating mode > hold down the alarm reset button on the operator station (yellow).

2. While holding it down > manually retract the screw back until a prompt field appears on the controller screen. Follow its instructions.

This procedure has not been carried out as the priority of the machine has required it to run all night without interruption.

Additionally, we had an issue where one of our technicians inadvertently changed the dialog language from English over to Kanji writing. This was executed on the "shift>main data" page. Top right corner. To undo this event and return back to English, the language must be returned to bilingual or trilingual > then > go to the compile page and select English from the language field. Note: the language field may not be present initially and the process may have to be repeated with care.

The shift main data page is also where the units of measurement are located, in case someone changes from Fahrenheit to Centigrade.

For reference >According to Don Thornwald of Nissei North America, technical support:

"With barrel at oper. Temps. Hold alarm reset PB in and same time to screw backward with CS4 switch. Go back max. distance pump loading and hold there until message appears.

Release alarm PB & inject screw all the way fwd. then check SM range.

On compile screen, left side is language selection."

 

 

 

 

March 9th, 2015

Obviously I have been very busy because I haven't had time to post anything since February.

Today I wired the core switches on a mold in tooling. The cheap ejector back limit switches the molds are coming in from China with are not durable to withstand everyday use. I have been replacing them with the Omron style switches we keep in MRO, when I find them already damaged or broken. This will save $$ in both time and replacement costs, with improved reliability.

PP#1-
I added longer power cord and air hose to the pad printer. I have been doing this to all of them when they come in the shop because of the limited 230 vac receptacles we have on the IMM's and because they often need to be used out of the way from production activities at the press.

The tote system Mark is implementing for keeping up with pad printing should help to speed along changeovers when they are required, and should also provide better organization and care to the pads and cliché's over time.

Have a great day!

Kent Pad Printer Lube Error - Update

 

According to Charley Rhinehart, Sales Engineer at Diversified Printing Techniques:

 

If the display show input code , please input 3964.

If the display show Machine has not been lubricated for more than 30,000 cycles , please press and hold until page change

 

1.30.15 -Night Shift Activities

Worked on Preventive Maintenance of Robots. Mp#9 is complete.

The soleplate press at Mp#23 ran tonight until about 10:30. It did have several plc faults which had to be cleared. The only fault error I found was related to internal memory retentive data lost.

What I did observe during operation was a situation where it got out of sequence because the horizontal bender did not bend the tab completely. The operator removed their hands during cycle and it was interrupted. When it was reset to resume operation- the vertical cylinder did not retract and the part could only be removed by manually lifting the vertical cylinder upward to remove the part. Then it had to be unplugged before it would reset. This condition did not result in a plc fault however.

The operator also requested that a pocket be milled out to allow the operators fingers to get underneath the sole plate after it is pressed. As it is now, it is somewhat difficult due to the tight fit. The slot would not affect the quality of the operation, so that may be something to consider?

Mp#28- Had an issue where the gate valve was loose from the frame of the machine. I tightened the screws. It also had an issue with the liquid color signal not working. The relay needed replaced.

Mp#1- The robot end of arm tool was not releasing the parts after removal from the mold. I looked at the program and it seemed to be alright as it was set up for one cavity. As I examined the EOAT I found that the air rail was not inserted completely. One thing we could do to improve this minor stoppage issue would be to add some type of visual confirmation.

PP#8- The pad printer was not indexing the tape clean and was not printing very well. I adjusted settings on the delay / dwell timers, positions, and set up the tape clean. I also wanted to know if the Kent washing machine is functional and what are the primary concerns with using it? I ask this because I think the techs could save a lot of time by using it. The idea of a mobile ink cart was jogged around today. Isn't that what the washer cart is for? I noticed them using a table instead.

PP#4- I added a longer cord and left it plugged up in the shop. It seems to be working fine now but will need to be tested on a production run after set up.

Have a great day!

1.21.15 Night Shift Activities

Mp#18-

I replaced the bad carriage cylinder rod seal with the new gland kit that was at Mark's desk. I used the new tool and spanner wrench and it worked great with no problems.

The 6-pin connectors boxes for the cores are now hooked up on Mp#18. It is important to note that an ejector forward signal must be jumped out or used on the VanDorn machines so I utilized pin#6 in each box to send that signal to LS151 relay in the cabinet.

Since we already have to add jumpers when there is no ejector back switch installed anyway (between pins 4 and 5), I thought this would be the best approach, although I am open to any better ideas.


There is a yellow tag attached to the core box on the moving platen that lets the techs or mold setters know:

Before Using the 6-PIN Connector

1.)     The 12-PIN TRYLOK JUMPER CABLE MUST BE REMOVED
2.)     A SMALL JUMPER NEEDS TO BE INSTALLED BETWEEN 4 and 6 ON THE MOLDs’   6-PIN MALE PLUG.

 

 

 

The Pinout for the changes I made are as follows:

A-Side / Stationary Platen / Cover Core Side

Pin 1	503	Pin 4	503
Pin 2	LS 146	Pin 5	LS 150
Pin 3	LS 147	Pin 6	LS 151

 

B-Side / Moving Platen / Ejector Core Side

Pin 1	503	Pin 4	503
Pin 2	LS 148	Pin 5	LS 150
Pin 3	LS 149	Pin 6	LS 151

The connectors have been checked and inputs verified, but they may call you out for help if they try a mold with a 6-pin plug and does not have the jumper between 4 and 6 installed yet. That may be all it needs, or it may need the Trylok core jumper removed?

Give me a call if you have any questions. have a great day.

1.14.15- Night Shift Activities

Mp#10-

Had an issue with the main breaker on the press tripped.  Found Thermolator had a shorted heater. Replaced it with new one and cleaned cooling drain solenoid valves.

Mp#18-

I ran the cables to add on the Oreck 6-pin core box receptacles. They have been routed but are not tied in yet. I will try to finish as time permits, or continue routing cables on the other VanDorns and work around the production schedule.

Mp#12-

Mitch informed me that the material hopper loading system seems to always be calling for material.  We may need to check that out when it goes down next time?

Have a great day!

1.13.15 - Night Shift Activities

Mp#21-

Screw will not retract or rotate issue.
Everything else appeared to be working correctly and the problem appeared to be a setting. Since it was still early, I called Kenny on his expertise to help me locate the problem.  We found the setting for the decomp after pressure to be too low to operate. The initial settings were 450 psi at 55%. The position for this setting was 0.10".

For unknown reasons at this time, apparently it will turn not turn the screw or retract until this pressure is set higher. When we raised it 750psi it began to operate again. We oddly found that at 100% flow volumes, it did not want to operate below 750- but when trying lower flow volumes at 50-25% it would work at pressures around 500-575- although slower in response.

So, keep in mind, anything below 500psi for this setting could create an issue? At least on this press.

1.12.15- Night Shift Activities

Worked on the hot runner controllers that had been brought in for repair. One needed a triac, another needed a switch, and some just had a bad fuse. Most were in fine working order, although some of the techs may have been confused at how the ITC and Athens models operate differently from the DME brand.?

Mp#25-

Issue with ejectors not working.
I had all output signals to the valves. Hydraulic pressure was fine. Since I had some trouble on this press Friday, I decided to pull the valves and clean them. Everything looked fine. After reassembling,  I removed the ejector bar nuts and changed the retract limit further back so I could stroke it back and forth before reaching the ejector bar face. They worked fine until reaching the bars. I then attempted to pry the ejector plate on the mold forward to see that it wasn't in a bind. In fact it was. Chris Wilson from toolong verified that the mold was in a bind. After the back half was pulled, I confirmed that the ejectors were working correctly.

1.09.15 Pad Printer PLC Programs

Kent Pad Printers

The Melsec GX Developer software is installed on the Molding Laptop now. The cable drivers are installed and I have uploaded programs and saved them in the C:/ drive from several of the pad printers. Program, Parameter, and Device data are included by Model and pad printer # (i.e.pp3,etc.).

When the GX software comes up, under the Project tab, you will see a list of the available pad printer programs. There is also a software .pdf users manual in the O:/molding/equipment/pad printer file for reference. I will also add the notes I have on reading and writing to and from the PLC's once they are ready to simplify the process.

As far as the memory loss-battery back up issue, I am still researching the dilemma.

 Additionally, there could still be issues where some of the pad printers have already lost some of the settings. For example, I  have already found an issue with one of the KIPP 200's (PP4) as soon as I powered it up. Although it allowed me to upload and monitor the program, I am getting some kind of 30,000 cycle lube fault that will not leave the HMI screen and the plc itself is showing no faults or errors. It may be an issue with the HMI or otherwise, but I could not locate that specific operator manual to investigate it. Everything online that I found was related to the type that did not have the touch screen.

Lastly, we need to get some more male plugs for the pad printers and hot stamps. If we have them already, I could not find them....probably needs to be a stock item?