CONTINUITY CAPABILITY RETROFIT
FOR
THE ARTOS CS-600
Team Members
John Balicki
 Quang Dinh Chad Modro
Hung Nguyen
 Timothy Salam
Ben Zile
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OBJECTIVE
General Cable in Altoona, a plant dedicated to manufacturing spark plug cables, has three linear wire processing machines that are incapable of checking the continuity of the cables that they produce. The objective of this project is to retrofit these machines with a system to check the continuity of the spark plug cables after the terminals have been installed. Any wires that do not pass the continuity test will be rejected and automatically remade by the machine.

PROJECT SPONSOR

Industry Sponsor
General Cable – Altoona Plant
Manufactures aftermarket wire and cable products for every modern automative application

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PROBLEM STATEMENT
  • The Artos CS-600 lacks the continuity checking capability that the existing machine at the plant already has.
  • Continuity checking will show if the terminals have been installed correctly or not.
  • The existing machine is a parallel system – the CS-600 is a linear processing system.
  • If the wire is defective, a signal must be sent to the Artos CS-600 to dispose of it.
  • The Artos CS-600 will then re-cut the wire and deliver a complete ignition wire set to the operator

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SOLUTION (Continuity Checking System CCS)

CCS Overview

  • Continuity Checking System
  • 24VDC System
  • Isolation Relay
  • High Impedance Wire

PLC-Based Control System
(Allen-Bradley Programmable Logic Controller)

  • Standard In Industry
  • Microprocessor Powered
  • Utilizes High Level Programming

The system block diagram shown at right details the control signals required for system implementation. DIN refers to the digital inputs to PLC, and DIO refers to the digital outputs to the mechanical contactors and the CS-600 machine.

 






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SOFTWARE & HARDWARE

Compact Logix 5320 PLC and RSLogix 5000 Software

In order for the continuity checking system (CCS) to interface with the Artos CS-600 control system and have the ability to control the mechanical system, it must be able to follow a set of logical commands.

Compact Logix 5320

  • Serial Interface for Remote Programming
  • 24VDC Digital I/O Interface Modules
  • Modular Design for Easy System Expansion

RSLogix 5000 Software

  • A high-level visual programming system
  • Allows for rapid coding of complex control system task


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ELECTRICAL DESIGN (Cable Interface Circuit CIC)

 

  • Compensates for the high resistance of the
    ignition wire of 3k Ohms to 17.3k Ohms
  • Provides the required 37.7 mA current to
    actuate the relay coil
  • Utilizes 24 VDC power
  • High resistance voltage divider is used to
    differentiate good and bad wires
  • LM 324 Op-Amp used for isolation of
    each stage
  • IFR510 Power MOSFET used as a switch to
    actuate the relay coil which provides input to the
    PLC


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MECHANICAL DESIGN

 

The concept is divided into three parts:

  • Contact Pads: they are to pass voltage through the wire, thereby completing the test circuit.
  • Trap Door and Wiper Arm Extension: they are to implement the pass/reject command issued from the PLC, after the continuity check

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Penn State EE Department: www.ee.psu.edu

Webpage created by Quang Dinh 2002