ELPLC S.A. builds robotic choke production line
According to estimates by the Energy Market Agency, the installed capacity of photovoltaics in Poland at the end of November 2022 was 11.92 GW, accounting for 54% of the installed capacity of RES. Each installation is a corresponding number of photovoltaic modules and inverters. An inverter consists of a number of electronic components depending on the sophistication of the design and additional functions. One such component is the choke, which, being part of the output circuit, reduces current ripple. The choke is a structure containing cores, coils and additional mounting components.
Choke assembly line
ELPLC S.A. is building a choke assembly line for one of Europe’s leading manufacturers. The line features a high degree of automation, robotization and autonomy, and supports multiple product references. The operator’s role will be limited only to replenishing semi-finished products in the feeders. Assembly slots have been designed to handle all the references required by the customer without retooling.
Stages of choke production
The first stage of production is to unwind and cut the wire to size. Then its ends are milled and the coil is formed. The next stage of production is the soldering of the ends under a nitrogen shield and vision quality control. Loading of the finished coils onto the main assembly line and internal reloading from pallet buffers is performed by OMRON’s high-speed SCARA robots.
The main assembly line is 12 stations connected by a pallet conveyor. An RFID system ensures product tracking in the process. Vibratory feeders deliver semi-finished products to the assembly process:
-resilient sheets
-core
-segments
-decks and casing
-coils in the quantity resulting from the models of the selected packages
After bundling, the robot moves the product to a rotary welding nest that provides double-sided welding. Vision inspection, electrical tests of initial inductance and voltage strength are used to check product quality. A laser marking machine engraves an alphanumeric symbol on the carcass and a SCARA robot unloads the finished parts into bulk packaging.
Control system and ELPLC Smart Factory
The control system is based on a Mitsubishi Melsec iQ-R series PLC with additional distributed I/O and servo modules communicating via CC-Link network. The ELPLC Smart Factory system is responsible for production data acquisition. It is a production management and monitoring system that collects data from machines, analyzes it online and presents the results in reports that are easy to read for operators. It consists of two modular applications: Monitoring and Web. It allows OEE indicators and defined KPIs to be determined by analyzing production flow and micro-downtime. It provides information to UR services enabling early machine diagnostics – Predictive Maintenance. In addition, data exchange with the customer’s internal MES system is provided.
Large project
The construction of an automatic choke production line is one of ELPLC S.A.’s largest projects in 2023. It will provide the customer with the production of an important inverter component at an appropriate level of quality and efficiency.
ELPLC SA’s machines and lines
We specialize in designing and building machines, complete robotic assembly lines and developing software for industry. We offer our expertise to many industries. We provide Industry 4.0 / Smart Factory solutions.
