LENGTH SORTING MECHANISM

Name : A.M.T.S.Bandara
Index No : 2013004CL1
Field : ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
Date of performance : 19.02.2017
Date of submission : 18.03.2017
INTRODUCTON

Automating every sector of industry is an important step toward increasing efficiency and
reducing human related errors, here we try to automate the length sorting mechanism by using
PLC. In many industries job pieces of various sizes are moved on same conveyor belt these need
to separate at various locations in the manufacturing line. For this purpose we are using the
automated process which is used to sort the materials which are of different length. After
completion of manufacturing the products automatically move on the conveyor belts. Sensors at
different places sense and detect the job pieces of different length.
They get sorted at different places based upon their sizes. The entire process is controlled
by the program dumped in PLC. A very commonly used method of programming PLCs is based
on the use of ladder diagrams. Writing a program is the equivalent to drawing a switching circuit.
Circuits are connected as horizontal lines, that is, the rungs of the ladder, between these two
vertical lines. In drawing ladder diagram, certain conventions are adopted.

EXPERIMENT

Length Sorting Mechanism

PROCEDURE

A PLC program was constructed. The design considerations of the system were as follow.

A, B and C are photo sensors whereas A, B and C are placed on the same horizontal level and
there are two activators A1 and A2 that push the items. It is required to sort the items into
following three categories.

1. Items shorter than length AB.

2. Items equal or greater than length AB and less than length AC.
3. Items greater than length AC.

The item satisfying condition (1) are to be pushed by actuator A1 and condition (2) are to be
pushed by actuator A2 and the rest of the items are to be collected at the end of belt.

Following steps were used in programming.

1. The timing requirements were found out to be pushed by A1 and A2 and time to go at the
end of the belt.
2. The time requirements were used, a program was constructed to push all item, after it had
sensed the sensor C.
3. A program was constructed to sort items greater than AB and less than AB. Items that
was less than AB were to be pushed by actuator A1.
4. The program was modified to satisfy all conditions.
A B C

A1 A2

Conveyor

A B C A1 A2

Fig : Two views of the system in a block