Lane diverting – Tolomatic
Manufacturer: Tolomatic
Product used: ERD Electric Cylinder
Application description:
Product diverter for conveying line
Challenge:
A builder of conveying machinery had utilized pneumatic systems for product diverting but wanted to offer an electric conveying system to their customers and an electric actuator solution was required. The existing machine design had proprietary controls that operated the pneumatic cylinder in a spring return operation with one digital output to the pneumatic valve. The customer could not redesign the proprietary controls and also wanted a solution that could be retrofitted in the field.
Solution:
The ERD electric cylinder with stepper drive was chosen as a low cost pneumatic replacement. A new operating mode called Pneumatic Mode was added to the software allowing the ERD electric cylinder to mimic the operation of the pneumatic cylinder. This mode allows for 2 and 3 positions based on all the different pneumatic cylinder and valve types on the market.
Customer benefit:
- Compatibility with existing proprietary controls eliminated need for new design
- Elimination of last air cylinders on machine allowed customer to market an all electric machine
- Flexibility of future expansion with infinite positions through Ethernet/IP option