Macro commands boost bottle labelling speed: Custom motion control programming commands are helping SASIB to deliver machines capable of applying up to 60,000 labels/hour. Several dedicated keywords for Baldor's Mint motion programming language were created for this application, and provided as C code for the embedded motion controller, more than tripling the responsiveness of the single-axis servo motor in this bottle labelling machine.

The new keywords - such as LABELCORRECTION which provides a real-time phase shift position adjustment to accommodate stretching or other variations in web material - typically perform the functions of around 20 conventional Mint instructions, allowing Baldor to slash the interrupt routine from around 80 to 24 msec. This provides enough time to detect a label, accelerate or decelerate as necessary, and provide a real-time output to actuate a knife to cut the label from the web within the time-frame typically available between labels.

The controller also continuously polls a man-machine interface - implemented using Baldor's standard operator panel - which allows users to manually advance or retard the web at run time to cope with problems. The panel, and other digital I/O lines, are connected to the motion controller via the CAN field bus, helping SASIB to minimise cabling inside the machine.

Based in Mantova, Italy, SASIB is one of the world's leading suppliers of bottle labelling machines, and specialise in high speed applications. The company chose to base its motion control architecture on Baldor UK products primarily because of the simple development and customisation possibilities offered by the high level programming language, Mint. This speeded development, and makes it simpler to set up machines at customer sites - as each application is almost invariably custom to some degree. This approach also helps the company to modify and adapt machines at a later date, a common requirement in the drinks industry as production processes evolve.

"The integrated motion control subsystem provided by Baldor is easy to use, and cuts the time and cost of setting up and tuning machines on the customer's site thanks to the high level Mint language" notes SASIB's Alberto Crescimbeni. "We have also standardised on Baldor motors and drives in this machine, which makes it easy to source spares anywhere in the world to support our international customer base."
"We customise software or hardware for a majority of our OEM applications" noted Baldor's Technical Director Mark Crocker. "In this case we provided language extensions to optimise speed, and an embedded variant of one of our servo motor controllers to minimise hardware costs."