Paper ID #15398

Developing Servo Indexing System Using Timing Screw for Automatic Liquid
Filler in Manufacturing Environment
Dr. Akram Hossain, Purdue University - Calumet
Akram Hossain, Purdue University Calumet Akram Hossain is a professor in the department of Engi-
neering Technology and Director of the Center for Packaging Machinery Industry at Purdue University
Calumet, Hammond, IN. He worked eight years in industry at various capacities. He is working with
Purdue University Calumet for the past 27 years. He consults for industry on process control, packag-
ing machinery system design, control and related disciplines. He is a senior member of IEEE and he
served in IEEE/Industry Application Society for 15 years at various capacities. He served as chair of
Manufacturing Systems Development Applications Department (MSDAD) of IEEE/IAS. Currently, he is
serving a two-year term as the chair of the Instrumentation of ASEE (American Society of Engineering
Education). He authored over 29 refereed journal and conference publications. In 2009 he as PI received
NSF-CCLI grant entitled A Mechatronics Curriculum and Packaging Automation Laboratory Facility. In
2010 he as Co-PI received NSF-ATE grant entitled Meeting Workforce Needs for Mechatronics Tech-
nicians. From 2003 through 2006, he was involved with Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL in
developing direct computer control for hydrogen powered automotives. He is also involved in several
direct computer control and wireless process control related research projects. His current interests are
in the area of packaging machinery system design & control, industrial transducers, industrial process
control systems, modeling and simulation of Mechatronics devices and systems in virtual environment,
programmable logic controllers, programmable logic devices, renewable energy related projects, wireless
controls, statistical process control, computer aided design and fabrication of printed circuit board.
Mr. Nirjhar Das Sharma, Purdue University - Calumet

Nirjhar Das Sharma pursued his passion for engineering from his early childhood while he was going
through High school education. He completed a four year B.Sc. course in Electrical and Electronic En-
gineering (2008-2013) from Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology, Bangladesh. The last
two years of the Bachelor study introduced him to some real-life learning along with a lot of important
experiences. He personally believes that the Industrial training at TICI (Training Institute for Chemical
Industries), Narshingdi was the most valuable tour where he experienced about the Industrial Production
Technology, sensing and control systems. This training made his decision easier to become a Graduate
student of Mechatronics Engineering Technology at Purdue University Calumet, USA (from August, 2013
till present). His enthusiasm developed for learning Electrical controls, PLC Ladder logic (Allen Bradley),
HMI design, Robot (Motoman) programming and Motion controls helped him to accomplish the integral
part of his research projects. Moreover, he has been a dedicated Instructor for an undergraduate level
course ’Electricity and Electronics fundamentals’ from January, 2014 to June, 2015 at Purdue University
Calumet. At present, he is also working as an Electrical Engineer at Plastipak Packaging Inc. experi-
encing different technologies like Injection Molders, Blow Molders, High Speed Vision System, Robotic
palletizers in a packaging environment. His strong belief about all of these experience and education
would create excellent opportunities for him and flourish his knowledge in the future.

Mr. Gautam Agarwal, Wynright Corporation

American
c Society for Engineering Education, 2016
 Developing Servo Indexing system using
Timing Screw for Automatic Liquid
Filler in Manufacturing
Environment

Abstract
In the world of automation, one the most significant topics for industrial manufacturing
technology is primary packaging of products and machine design which can be considered as the
integral part of new products development process. Servo motion control is one of the most
promising solutions for primary packaging industries. This research article will present a
servomotor driven indexing system using timing screw in a filling machine which can be
described as an efficient application of precise motion controls. In addition, the research is
focused on the Integration of the indexer with an automatic liquid filling machine developed
from industrial prospective. It also emphasizes on more advanced features of an indexing system
of a generic filling machine. The servomotor driven indexing system using timing screw offers
the premium method to index containers or bottles in order to design a fast and efficient
production in an automatic liquid filling system. Servo encoder feedback can provide the closed
loop control on the process and save the product from wastage with the help of a feedback signal.
Nevertheless, this type of indexing system can offer cost benefits and a high degree of precision.

The idea presented here is of an automatic filling system relates to the indexing method of
different types of containers and more particularly to an electromechanical control system and
method for controlling servomotors that are a part of an indexer of the filling machinery. This
type of bottle indexing & filling mechanism plays very important role in the medical, beverage
and wine industries. These machines are used not only for filling and capping but also to reduce
the labor operator or manual operation in the industry. A traditional process contains filling the
bottle by hand or by a semiautomatic machine having questionable accuracy will create lots of
wastage of filling product. There are several important factors that are necessary to be brought up
while discussing about Automatic Liquid Filling system such as the type of liquid, the size of the
container, the throughput of the system, filling method etc. The traditional process takes lot of
preparation time. This means, first of clean the bottle, second, determine whether the bottle is
crack or not. In this way, the work setting time is more as compared with the filling time of the
bottle. So due to this problem the idle time of the process is more as compared to the working
time of the machine this will results in the low productivity of the machine and also it requires
many worker for this process. This affects the overall efficiency of the machine. In turn this also
reduces the throughput due to the more idling time. The goal of this research was to achieve the
design, testing, and implementing an entire working machine in a shortest possible time. Thus,
machine design and controls programming including engineering method was implemented from
conception through the completion.

Problem Description
At present many methods are popular in the manufacturing industries for liquid filling machines
for the purpose of placing a container in the fill group area and as well as assurance of the
product dispensing in the right container with right positioning. Some of these design methods of
indexing might be expensive to build and complicated in case of operation and maintenance. So
the main objective of this research is focused on following concerns:

1. What is the advantage of using timing screw for this automatic filling system?

2. How much efficiency based on production and cost we can retrieve using timing screw
indexing?

The purpose of this research was to design an automatic indexing for an industrial liquid filling
system which is basically a piston filler system. The automatic indexer was achieved by a timing
screw from “Morrison Container Handling Solutions”, driven by an Allen-Bradley servo motion
control system. The system can inspect the desired number of containers to be filled, accept to
feed into the timing screw also perform appropriate mapping of the presence of the bottle or
container in the fill group area. The perfect mapping or inspecting of the present bottles is simply
achieved as a result of servo feedback loop and proper operation of photo eye sensors. The
reason for this inspection is to save product from dispensing if there is a missing container in one
of the screw pocket in the fill area. The system encompasses a regular conveyor system for
taking the bottles to feed into the indexer and also discharging from the indexer simultaneously.
The filling portion of the entire system is definitely driven by electro-pneumatic operation. The
system is able to demonstrate successful automatic indexing with industry grade motion control
system, electrical and pneumatic controls systems. In order to initiate the design and
development of the servo-driven timing screw indexer for the automatic filling system, few
assumptions can take place.

1. The system is designed to be capable of being integrated with actual inline packaging
processes. However, this system was built as a separate unit in a laboratory environment. At
that point it was assumed that the performance of the system would remain constant in the
event of integration with other divisions of a packaging process such as capping, labeling and
stacking etc.

2. The timing screw indexing system had to be deployed in a smaller scale to fit at the
Mechatronics Laboratory in Purdue University Calumet. The assumption made at that point
was that the results obtained from the indexer/filling system would not vary depending on the
variable of throughput or machine size at a different production environment.

3. The prototype was developed to perform at a very low speed in order to overcome challenges
with motion control for precise movement of the containers/bottles.

However, in any occasion of being deployed in an actual industrial environment, the system
should perform properly at higher speed with few modifications of machine design and position
commands with respect to lower speed.

Design Methodology
This research study is highly motivated with industrial and mechatronics methodological
approach. This type of approach is generally implemented by three following phases:

a) Modeling & Simulation

b) Prototyping

c) Deployment and Life cycle

First step should be the recognition of need. To follow the first step the primary need of this
research is to choose and design a timing screw dedicated for a bottle of specific size and
dimension. The concept should be developed as the first step is completed. It is also very
important to specify the functional requirements of the system for this research.
Selection of the right driving components for the timing screw indexer should be the second step
in this example. For this research, a servo motor and servo drive along with safety integration
was chosen. Third step was definitely to optimize the design to be able to simulate the actual
hardware.

Sometimes the design approach of this type of system may require development of software or
program coding where life cycle optimization can take place. Deployment of a design is the final
touch in this methodological approach. Concurrent way of engineering technique should be the
main key of the design phases for this research. The indexer selection should company the filling
mechanism as well as the fill cycle calculations and simulation etc. The conceptual framework of
this study started with the machine design and component selection. To follow the Industrial
standards of this specific type of research, selection of component as well as cost effective bill of
materials plays a very important role. There was also another factor to maintain the Mechatronics
methodological design approach. Basically this research is developed to focus, guide and walk
through a combination of Industrial practices and design phases of mechatronics technology. The
design of filling machinery basically begins with the container to be filled with the liquid product
to be used. As this research is based on a Laboratory environment, so the liquid products are
actually not involved here. The integrated machine was built based on a very general liquid like
drinking soda or water.

Type Boston Round

Diameter 1.75”

Height 4.5”

Table 1: Container Dimension and Specification Figure 1: Container used in the research

This information about the container is the first step to begin the machine design. Depending on
this, the selection of the system conveyor will be decided and the other mechanical components
for the filling operation. As soon as the mechanical design was established for both indexer and
the filler, the electrical controls design was the next approach to be done. Moreover, there were
controls programming Logic, Operator Interface and Testing the operation which were very
important tasks to get a complete result. The timing screw design and calculation is the most
value added because the design parameters of the timing screw determine the overall efficiency
of the indexing system as well as the filling operation. First of all some information are to be
decided prior to the calculation of Design of the timing screw.

1. Size of the container= 1.75” Diameter

2. Desired throughput for the research is 40 containers per minute. As this research is built
based on a laboratory environment, so the design was meant to as compact as possible
and also the speed or throughput was not significantly higher due to some safety purpose
of the students and equipment.

3. Pitch of the timing screw = 2.5”; the pitch of the screw is actually the distance or gap
between the Centre of two containers sitting together.

Pitch=2.5”

1.75” 1.75”

Figure 2: Determining pitch of the timing screw.

1. Length of the timing screw = 36”

2. Diameter of the timing screw = 4”

All these screw parameters are dependent on the size of the containers.
Figure 3: Timing Screw Initial Assembly Drawing

After the screw pitch and diameter is determined, the next step is to design a drive assembly
system which is basically used for mounting the timing screw with the feed through conveyor
system. Also the drive assembly system will determine the direction of rotation or the direction
of travel of the containers. Sometime a proper calculation and sizing drive to have a gear reducer
for the servo motor to rotate and operate the timing screw. Although in this research, gear
reducer was not used but suggested rear ratio is 7:1 (Calculation was done from Motion
Analyzer, Rockwell Software, and Rockwell Automation). The other advantage of having a gear
reducer is to avoid the inertia mismatch between the servo motor and the load; also it is useful
for resulting in higher speed in comparison to the input power or torque of the motor. So, this
drive assembly system can operate the machine in a greater throughput and increase the line
efficiency a lot more than the desired speed.

This research was focused on the automatic indexing features rather than the speed of the filler as
it was indicated before. So gear reducer was not used but the drive assembly system is well
attached to drive the timing screw as a travel direction from left to right. When manufacturing
the drive assembly it is important to use guarding over the system to have the safety from any
kind of hazardous situation. It is better to use a stainless steel industrial standard guarding for the
drive assembly system. Designing a timing screw also refers to some calculation which starts
from the desired speed of the system (40 containers per minute). The time for fill stop should be
determined to know what maximum speed the timing screw needs to be rotating.

The number of fill heads used in the filler also plays a vital role to determine some of the
important calculation. In this research the preliminary proposal was to have 4 fill head nozzles
but later on it was eliminated to 2 fill heads to make the machine more compact. These
calculations are definitely done from some of the mathematical equation to understand the filler
stop time and this stop time can be used for the filling the containers with the expected liquid
product and achieve the ultimate throughput with the machine.

Table 2: Calculation for the Indexing Operation, Morrison Container Handling Solution

Controls System Design

The idea of this research was initialized with different perspective of the controls system where
servo motion control was more complicated. The idea was to build a controls system for a
walking beam filling technology which is based on three axis servo motion cam profiles. But
later on, the research goal was motivated into a different path yet the control system of this
research is surely able to build a machine with 4 axis motion. Besides, this electrical control
system was built to demonstrate laboratory experiments. As a result, the electrical design and
load calculations are based on both the “Indexer and Filler” and laboratory training criteria. In
this research, one of the very important software tools is DMAT (Drives and Motion
Acceleration Toolkit Wizard) by Rockwell Automation which leads the design and simulation
phase of the procedure. Firstly, a Multi-Axis Kinetix 6000 Servo Drive with LIM (Line Interface
Module) was chosen as the dedicated components for the research. So, this DMAT software tool
was really helpful building the preliminary Bill of material (BOM), Electrical Schematic, Panel
layout footprints and other layout drawings. Later on, all of these software created documents
were needed to be modified according to the exact application of the research and the laboratory
training module. The Electrical controls system of this research is called ‘Kinetix 6000 Servo
Trainer Panel’. Most of the components were pre-selected and then it was easy to start with the
application and also I/O points of view for the research. To build a trainer panel, a well-designed
cubic structure was built with keyboard and monitor mounting hardware for the trainer computer.

Figure 4: Front View Figure 5: Top View

Figure 6: Side View Figure 7: 3D View of the Trainer

Process Description
The working principle of the timing screw Indexer is simple to understand. The first index cycle
after transitioning to Automatic Mode should index the first container on the conveyor to the
most downstream fill head. In this case, the screw will make an absolute movement to index the
first bottle to the most downstream fill head. The following containers will then align below the
earlier fill heads as both screw pockets and the fill head assembly are designed according to the
specific containers dedicated to this research. The next fill group will already be situated in the
following pockets, so the screw need only proceed by the number of pockets of the timing screw
in each fill group. This motion can be achieved with relative movements of the servo axis.

Figure 8: Basic Operation of an Indexer using Timing Screw.

This process is illustrated above where the gray rhombuses are indicating the screw pockets. The
first transition indexes a total of 4 pockets ahead to fully index the red container. Every
subsequent index would then only move 3 pockets ahead. This First Group Indexing will occur
for the first index cycle anytime Automatic Mode is activated. The location of the containers is
unpredictable if the machine transitions out of Automatic Mode. Another important study of this
research will provide the application of a fill shift register to track the bottle present within the
indexer to be able to prevent from wasting of the products. This bottle tracking operation is
defined as ‘No Bottle No Fill’ or N.B.N.F operation for this research. The N.B.N.F operation
will be controlled directly from the logic program of the controller which is basically a bit shift
operation triggered by the actual home position of the servo-indexer. This way it is easy to
register if a bottle is actually present under the fill heads and ready to be filled or not.
Filling Mechanism Path Flow

Priming
Sequence

Auto Indexing of
the containers

Head Dive

Filling the
indexed
containers

Start a New
Cycle

Figure 9: Filling Mechanism Process Flow

Priming Sequence

The priming sequence of the Indexer was one of the most challenging procedures in order to
achieve the research objectives. The priming sequence is the Automatic order of operation that is
held just before the first indexing of the group of containers. This operation is definitely
controlled by the program coding as a part of the combination of PLC and servo motion
programming. Nevertheless, a priming of the indexer needs to have some input signal conditions
to complete the sequence which actually also measures the number of screw rotations or
revolutions needed to get the containers right before the fill group area. In this research two
diffused type of photo eye sensors drive the conditions for priming sequence.
 Photo eye 1: Containers Available

 Photo eye 2: First Screw pocket recognition

Figure 10: Positioning under Priming Sequence of the indexing

The procedure is little complicated because both of these sensors has to be satisfied and
obviously the priming sequence has to be triggered from the Human-Machine Interface (HMI).
There is another time the priming sequence can take place if the power cycle is occurred and the
controller is in its first scan of the program code.

Auto or JOG Mode

The Indexer of the research set up can be operated in two modes of operation.

1. Auto Cycle Mode

2. JOG Mode

Auto Cycle Mode initiates the indexer to run in Automatic mode. So the first thing the controller
will try to find out if the priming sequence is done. And then fulfilling the input signal conditions
and HMI buttons are pressed, the Auto cycle mode takes place. The first step of the Auto Mode
is to complete the indexing which means to bring the containers under the dedicated fill group
area and two fill heads will be aligned from the Centre with two containers respectively. This
step is completed with the dedicated motion instruction being done and starts the pneumatic air
driven Head dive process. After the Head dive is done, both the dive system and the indexer will
wait for a time to be elapsed to reset the cycle. The final step is to send recognition to the
controller that a cycle is completed and based on given condition start a new cycle. This is
basically the theory of Auto mode of operation.
JOG mode of operation is nothing but a manual operation for the machine outputs of the
research. This mode of operation does not run any cycle but allows the operator to determine the
possible situation by changing manual speed, acceleration time, deceleration time etc. of the
servo motor or the indexer. Moreover, this operation helps to set the pneumatic components to
function with precision and nearly accurate positioning.

Fill Cycle

Fill cycle of the machine exactly follows the process flow or process mapping of the filling
Mechanism. This is actually the basic reflection of the Auto Mode of filler operation along with
indexing of the research.

1. First step is to check if the priming sequence is complete.

2. Second Step is to make sure the first group of containers completed indexing.
3. Third step is to check if the Fill heads are down or if the Head dive has been occurred.
4. Fourth step is to initiate and complete the fill to the set volume within a specific amount of
time into containers.
5. Last step is to complete the fill and restart a new cycle or go back to the first step.

Fill Shift Register:

Fill Shift register is an operation that is occurred during the fill cycle by the controller logic of
the system to determine the presence of bottle under each fill heads. The photo eye located at the
First pocket of the screw generates the soft pulse inside the code and triggers a bit with the help
of the Homing position pulse of the servo motor. This way the shift register starts shifting a bit
from right to left each time the sensor get a false to true transition by the presence of a bottle. As
a result, fill shift register helps to find out whether the product needs to be dispensed or not. This
operation is very useful to save products from wasting that are expensive or save products that
are harmful to be exposed in the environment.
Figure 11: Explaining Fill Shift Register operation during the fill cycle

Fill Cycle Reset

Fill cycle represents the total operation starting from indexing through the fill completion of one
group of containers within a certain period of time during the Automatic mode of operation. Fill
cycle time means the time spent for one complete cycle. So, after each cycle completes, the
controller will look for a signal to be high inside the code which is the Fill cycle Reset flag.
There might or might not be a delay time for the cycle to be reset and restart a new one.

The expected cycle time can be calculated very easily. To know the fill cycle time is very
important because that is the best way to know exactly what time after the system needs to
complete the cycle and start a new fill cycle. At the starting of the Methodology, it was stated the
desired throughput of the system is 40 containers per minute. This system has 4 fill heads. That
simply shows the number of cycle needs to be done within 1 minute or 60 seconds. For this
research, Number of cycle in 1 minute is equal to 20 (Expected throughput/ Number of Fill
heads). Therefore for each cycle it will get 3 seconds to complete each cycle (Expected
throughput/ Number of Fill cycles in 1 minute).

Human Machine Interface

The Human Machine Interface plays the lead role for the operator as this is accessible path to
modify any variables, timers, counters and other motion parameters to the program. Sometimes
selecting different mode or START-STOP control gives the operator a versatile advantage to
improve the existing process. The following figure represents one of the main displays of the
HMI design of this research.
Figure 12: The Indexer Set up screen from the HMI design.

Limitation & Future Improvements

The design and fabrication, intended to be accomplished in this research, was a smaller scale
prototype of a real-life automatic filling system. In an actual industrial environment, the system
may require modifications/improvements for the variables related to the motion control system,
perfect signal conditioning from the photo eyes and other controls components. Besides this,
depending on variation of bottle, the mechanical arrangements would need to be revised or
modified. In addition, the actual Indexer and the Piston filling system machine may need to go
through some additional stages in a real packaging facility. The purpose of this research was to
accomplish an industry grade indexer in a filling machine line based on successful articulation
between servo motor driven timing screws, electro-pneumatic piston filling system. Therefore,
implementation of servo driven indexing systems or filling operation cannot be fully automatic
as there were no options for staging or feeding the containers into the conveyor. This research
was completed successfully by the proper output configurations and desired stable system as a
combination of servo-driven Indexer and Piston filler.
A research should always have the door open for the future process improvement and
opportunities for analysis. This research has a versatile controls system involved which was built
by keeping in mind about the possible future improvement.

1. This system is capable of driving 4-Axis with separate servo motors. As a result, the control
panel can be applied to build a Walking beam continuous filler.

2. The filling mechanism of the machine can replace any other method of filling. As an
improvement work, the higher technology like Mass flow meter filling techniques can be
adopted with the existing controls system.

3. Finally, the servo trainer panel has the room for more up gradation if necessary with two
PowerFlex® V.F.D units to run two more A.C Induction motors.

Conclusion
Integration of an automated filling system with an Automatic indexing sequence for industrial
applications was initiated with the aim to accomplish a diversified industrial automation and
controls modular learning system for the Mechatronics Program at Purdue University Calumet.
Successful implementation of the Filler Indexer line would deliver the following educational
focuses for the learners in this program:

1. System design approach for industrial packaging problems.

2. Problem solving methodologies through development of automated machines.

3. Selection and sizing of electrical, pneumatic, controls and mechanical components

depending on the requirements for a certain application.

4. Electrical controls panel schematic drawing and wiring skills according to industrial
safety standards and requirements.

Substantial programming approaches for automation technologies (e.g. PLC, HMI, Motion
control etc.) for effectively automating industrial production/packaging machine lines in order to
enhance the end product quality and machine throughput. Integration of a Servo-driven Indexer
and an Industrial Dual Head Automatic Piston Filler was the main objective of this research. The
research also focused on the safety standards that are practiced in the industries for the
integration of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electro-pneumatic, Motion
controls and PLC technology. The other goal of this research was to build a servo trainer panel
which will serve the purpose of laboratory environment. This multi-Axis drive and controls
system enables the students to obtain the bird’s eye view of the industrial machines and enhance
their learning in terms of wide range of mechatronics methods, components and the integrated
applications. The System Design approach is an effective method of research as it emphasizes on
maximum involvement which develops enthusiasm to investigate and learn about the
Mechatronics systems. The automatic Indexer developed in this research could also be
implemented to improvise the process and convert it to Walking Beam continuous filling system.
Regardless of the limitations, the main objective of the research was accomplished with proper
care and necessary steps maintaining all Industrial standards.

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