Arla Foods / Logoplaste - Plastic Bottle Conveyor Control System

Highlights

For the Arla Foods new super dairy at Stourton Leeds there was a requirement to make and transport the dairy containers around the facility. MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd. were responsible for the design, build and implementation of the electrical control system for the transportation conveyors for the plastic bottles from the blow moulding machines to the filling hall. The conveyor system comprised of six conveyor lines each operating at 150K bottles per hour.

The conveyor system was spilt into six distinctive control areas, with each area controlled by a Siemens S7 PLC and the conveyors controlled by Movimot motors, which received their control and speed signal from the Siemens PLC via a Profibus communication network.

An automated storage and retrieval buffer store between the blow moulding hall and bottle filling hall was used to smooth out variations in production and also allowed for either the blow moulding machines or the filling machines to work independently of one another.

As the project was within the food & beverage sector, the system was installed to food hygiene standards with stainless steel dairy tube and stainless steel trunking used through out for cable containment.

MacDonald Humfrey also installed an Andon system, which used Factory Vision LED display boards for the display of Andon and plant status and developed a management reporting system for production and maintenance reports.