Tip of the Day 16: Optional Tool Review

 

 

 

• • Valve Gates

 

• • Shuttle Control

 

• • Basic 3-Stage Control

 

• • Chinese Language and Japanese Language

 

• • Incoe Valve Gate Controller, Encap_Shuttle_eDART, Eastman_Chemical_Dryer_Monitoring, FLX-APC_eDART

 

• • OEM_to_eDART_Upgrade

 

• • Peak_Ejection_Force

 

• • One_Minute_Cycle

 

• • Material_Density_and_Shot_Weight

 

• • Math_Processing

 

• • Valve_Gate_Timing

 

• • Insightpro_Support(only for purchasers of Insight reporting)

 

• • Job_Started

 

• • Extended Cycle Time

 

• • Individual_Alarm_Security

 

• • Setup_Inspect_for_Diverter_Controls

 

• • Intouch_Support

 

 

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Details

 

Valve Gates

 

Operates OR2-D relay outputs (when named “Valve Gate Output”) on various signals and cavity pressure

 

Used to control the flow and packing of material in individual cavities or individual spots in a cavity.

 

Note: We do not sell the air valves and other hardware to actually operate the gates.

 

Shuttle Control

 

This takes a sequence input indicating the position of a rotary table or sliding shuttle.

 

It makes decisions about part sorting and control based on which sensors are “active”, i.e. being injected.

 

This tool is useful in multi-shot applications as well.

 

Basic 3-Stage Control

 

Controls switchover between two speeds with a relay output to a hydraulic valve.

 

Used as a retrofit to older machines. The valve replacement must be part of the installation.

 

Chinese Language and Japanese Language

 

Somewhat self explanatory. These install the character sets for those languages.

 

Incoe Valve Gate Controller, Encap_Shuttle_eDART, Eastman_Chemical_Dryer_Monitoring, FLX-APC_eDART

 

These are NOT upgrades that are purchased directly by any customer. They are custom configurations that we build here for specific OEM’s per agreement with them or to make a specific type of eDART (the FLX).

 

OEM_to_eDART_Upgrade

 

For those customers who own an OEM eDART (e.g. Incoe or FLX) this purchased upgrade lets them convert to a full eDART with all of its features. It always includes the upgrade to the latest software release.

 

This upgrade can only be installed on specific eDARTs with a code provided by RJG. Each code is specific to a certain serial number eDART.

 

Peak_Ejection_Force

 

Calculates the peak force on ejector pin sensors during ejection. It is only

 

This tool is not useful for part sorting since by the time the ejection force is determined the part is already gone. However it is useful in trending on the Summary Graph or record keeping in Analyzer to see whether the forces are building or have jumped up due to some process change.

 

One_Minute_Cycle

 

This creates a “false” Injection Forward signal that is on for 58 seconds and off for 2 seconds.

 

It is useful for monitoring processes that are not cyclical such as extruders or dryers.

 

Note: This must NOT be used in combination with a sequence module or the eDART and the customer will get completely confused.

 

Material_Density_and_Shot_Weight

 

The user enters a material density for the specific material running and then the eDART computes a theoretical shot weight based on the peak shot volume.

 

We built this tool for a customer making large, very thick-walled parts. They find it works reasonably well for them when they check the actual shot weight against the computed value. They print labels on the parts with the weight.

 

Note: We cannot be certain this will work in all applications. It can be easily fooled by leaky check-rings.

 

Math_Processing

 

This allows you to create a script to filter signals in various ways, do arithmetic on curves, integrate, take derivatives and store data at fixed sample rates in .csv files.

 

This tool is useful for research people trying to detect extract new or different information from the data that we currently do not have in the summary values.

 

Note: It is a non-user friendly, research lab tool. It requires script editing in a very specific way to get it to work.

 

Valve_Gate_Timing

 

Takes sequence inputs from currently existing valve gate controls (e.g. on a machine) and measures the timing of the gates. It creates values indicating when and how long each gate opened and closed.

 

This was built for a customer who wanted to evaluate his current valve gate control to determine where the inconsistency in his process arose.

 

Insightpro_Support

 

With release 8.0 all of the support for Insightpro is removed. This includes Down Time, Scrap Entry, Production Monitor and Production State.

 

If a customer purchased Insightpro reporting we can deliver them this tool to re-install the support that was removed. The tools removed will then be maintained after that until there are no more users of Insightpro.

 

Job_Started

 

This tool simply turns on an output when the job is started on the eDART.

 

The customer can drag this as an indicator that any job has started by dragging into the “Molds” folder in the Architect. Or he can use it to indicate that a certain kind of material is being used (e.g. color change) by putting it into a specific material folder under the mold. When the job stops the output goes off.

 

Extended Cycle Time

 

This allows users to run jobs longer than the current 260 second time limit and record all of the cycle data up to 35 minutes. It does this at the cost of resolution making each step in the data 0.01 seconds (10 mS) minimum instead of 0.001 second (1 mS).

 

The instructions for this tool can be read here.

 

Individual Alarm Security

 

This adds another column to the Alarm Settings tool to allow the user to secure each alarm individually. Sometimes people with cavity pressure sensing want to lock down the in-cavity alarm but allow the process technicians to set warnings and alarms around such things as Effective Viscosity. Then the process tech can get a warning early without adjusting the quality parameters for the part. 

 

Setup_Inspect_for_Diverter_Control

 

This adds a hidden button to the Diverter Controls that appears when you press « Don’t Sort » . The Don’t Sort function generally causes all parts to be rejected and get out of reach of the operator. When the operator is setting up a process and presses « Don’t Sort » to prevent problems from going down stream he may not be able to get at the parts for inspection. This lets the operator force the part diverter to drop one good shot where he can reach it and then go back to rejecting again.

 

Intouch Support

 

This brings up the Intouch Keypad on the eDART if the Intouch system server is functioning on the network. It will do nothing if  you do not have Intouch.