INVT Improves Printing Bottle Feeding Efficiency by 50% with Automation Solution

The printing industry, a core sector of manufacturing, is undergoing profound transformation driven by technological innovation and industrial upgrading. The printing bottle feeder is a key piece of equipment in the post-printing process for printing bottles. It primarily uses robotic gripper cylinders, traversing mechanisms and other tools to feed printing bottles onto conveyor belts, enabling fast and accurate feeding of printing bottles of varying sizes and flexible feeding in different orientations. This not only saves labor costs but also significantly accelerates and improves the efficiency of printing bottle feeding.

Challenges in the Upgrading of Printing Bottle Feeders

The traditional manual feeding process suffers from low efficiency, inconsistent bottle placement on conveyor belts by workers each time, cumbersome procedures and insufficient precision, which severely impairs overall productivity. Meanwhile, dust, noise and paint fumes generated during operations pose health risks to workers, and mechanical operations also entail potential safety hazards. These pain points have created an urgent market demand for a new type of automated equipment integrated with high precision and high efficiency to achieve automation upgrading and enhance production safety and feeding efficiency.

INVT Solution

To meet the technical and process requirements of the equipment, INVT has proposed a comprehensive solution combining the TS611 system, DA180A servo drive and VS070QE HMI, facilitating quick operation by workers and rapid fault identification by maintenance staff. In addition, the entire equipment is controlled by IMS20A servo motors, featuring fast response, precise positioning, improved production efficiency and enhanced stability of product processing.

Printing Bottle Feeding Control Solution

The TS611 system PLC serves as the core controller of the whole system. The traversing axis is mainly controlled by the company's pulse-type servo drive DA180A for speed and positioning, enabling accurate positioning of the material picking, waiting and feeding positions. The robotic gripper is equipped with three cylinders: a vertical cylinder, a rotary cylinder and a clamping cylinder, with each cylinder's movement controlled by the PLC. Printing bottles to be processed later are rotated to the material separating motor via the material sorting tray, and then transported to the feeding channel through the material separating motor—both the material sorting motor and material separating motor are controlled by the PLC.

Beyond the standard functions of conventional PLCs, the TS611 features advanced motion control capabilities, including support for 32-axis electronic cam programming, flying shear and chasing shear functions. It adopts ladder diagram programming for ease and efficiency of operation. The drive layer uses INVT's DA180A series servo drives, the human-machine interaction layer is equipped with the VS070QE HMI. The servos are controlled by pulse signals sent from the PLC, and the HMI is connected to the controller via serial communication.

Solution Values

INVT's solution not only significantly reduces workers' labor intensity but also effectively improves the working environment and eliminates potential safety hazards. Most notably, the system realizes high-efficiency printing bottle feeding, perfectly addressing the long-standing automation challenges plaguing the industry such as slow feeding speed and irregular bottle placement in traditional manual feeding.

Efficiency

The maximum feeding efficiency reaches 55-60 bottles per minute, representing a maximum efficiency increase of up to 50% compared with traditional solutions.

Cost

The adoption of servo control for higher precision reduces the wear of feeding manipulator molds, cutting material costs by 30%.

Product

The pulse-type DA180A drive features simple wiring for a neat electrical cabinet layout; paired with a single-turn magnetic encoder, it achieves high-precision bottle feeding positioning. Programming is done on INVT's AutoStation Pro platform, facilitating the realization of control requirements and equipment upgrading and transformation.

Process

Streamlined process parameters, together with a set of default parameters, simplify on-site commissioning work.

Through its innovative system solution, INVT has successfully achieved the intelligent upgrading of printing bottle feeding equipment, providing users with an automated processing and production solution that balances high efficiency and ease of use.

Going forward, INVT will continue to increase investment in independent R&D, commit to providing customers with more targeted customized solutions, and advance the technological innovation of traditional processes under the concept of green intelligent manufacturing featuring "low energy consumption, low emissions and high efficiency". The company will empower customers to achieve a new leap in industrial upgrading through innovative technology and drive the sustainable development of the industry.