In-line moving Glass Cutting Control System

Electrical DrawingFast Automation was given the task of designing a control system for a major glass manufacturer to:

  1. Cut varying speed glass perfectly square to 0.5mm accuracy
  2. Breaking wired glass
  3. Tracking rejects and rejecting via trap doors
  4. Calculating and cutting alternative lengths where primary lengths could not be achieved due to rejects
  5. Provide a user friendly redundant touchscreen interfaced control system

This system is the critical path for a major production line and as such had to be designed to be fully redundant. The challenge was in the changing speed of the glass this resulted in 2 areas of concern 1 being able to cut the glass square and 2 being able to reliably cut the required length. The application necessitated custom VSD programming with high-speed interrupt routines. The profile of the cut changes with the speed of the glass. The system also took advantage of advances in flux vector drives allowing the use of AC rather than DC drives.

The project itself was challenging due to strict downtime requirements. All requirements of the project were met on the first run of the system.


Technology used:

  • OMRON Encoders
  • TOSHIBA T1S PLCs
  • Hitech Touchsceens
  • Control Techniques UNI Variable Speed Drives