Hello all! So I am a final year production engineering student and I am undergoing a project. I want to automate a conveyor belt based on weights. For example, the filling happens when a certain amount of weight is filled and then the filling stops. Similarly, the conveyor moves ahead when the required weight is filled. Any ideas on how do I make it? (Components, codes, etc?) Any helps would be highly appreciated.
P.S. I am a total newbie in the field of automation, so I might not know everything you say.

 

just to clarify. are you saying you want to have a belt that said weights drop on to and get carried over to some sort of container and gets dropped in? Then when its full it will shut it self off but if you take some out it will refill again?

 

Are you required to do this with descrete components or can you use something such as a PLC, this would be a common industrial method solution for a automation control project.
Max.

 

hi 99.
Is the conveyor belt carrying containers that are then filled with the weight items or the weight items being dropped directly onto the conveyor belt.
A diagram would be helpful.
E

 

It seems that the best approach would be to weigh the material in a separate process, one that is fixed in one position using the load cell. When the prescribed weight is reached, then a tipping mechanism or valve of some sort could release the product into a container on the conveyor belt. Starting and stopping the conveyor belt would have to be synchronized somehow.

 

Well I doubt anyone will do your schoolwork for you but they will share their thoughts. You are looking at a type of process control. You want to run data into a uC (micro-controller) be it Arduino or any other similar uC. Detecting a box on a conveyor is pretty simple using a sensor similar to the sensors used for safety on for example a garage door. Your choice on the sensor, you decide what would work best for your application. Your sensor inputs a digital signal to the uC and the conveyor stops. Now you have a fill function where your dispenser dispenses a product into a container. You may want to use a totalizer function here. You can work with weight but including load cell(s) into a conveyor scheme can be challenging. Another possibility is using VMD (Volume Metric Density) where your material / product will have a given weight per unit of volume. Again, you can use basic weighing but working out a scheme for a conveyor might be challenging. So at this point you are using one DI (Digital Input) and an AI (Analog Input) while a DO (Digital Output) controls your stop / start of your conveyor.

You may want to do a Google of "Optical Belt Conveyor Scale" for some ideas.

As Max points out above in an industrial environment task like this are generally handled by a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller).

The programming for a task like you want to do is relatively simple. You start with a clean sheet of paper, a pencil with a large eraser and start thing your logic sequence through. Again, this is your school project. Also you can do this as a proof of concept or an actual working model but depending on your choice of sensors it can get a little expensive. This is another good read on the subject.

Ron