Students gain understanding of conveyor systems, sensing systems, pneumatic pick and place technology, DC motor drives, and stepper motor drives. The factory includes a number of colored discs made from plastic and other materials. A conveyor belt moves these pieces into the factory, where user programmed sensors sort the discs into multiple rejection bins. Some are picked off the conveyor by a suction device and a stepper motor-controlled gantry sorts the discs into appropriately colored containers.

The smart factory is completely self-contained and can be stored away in one of our standard trays. The smart factory can be used with Siemens (or other brand) 12V or 24V) PLC and is also compatible with our MIAC .

Smart Software

The Smart Factory is controlled in one of two ways. Users can either opt to control using two of our dsPIC driven MIAC controllers, which are educational PLC’s and perfect for younger students to understand the capabilities and possibilities of industrial smart factories.

Alternatively our Siemens add-on for the smart Factory, gives students the ability to program the system using an industrial grade S7-1200PLC. This is provided on a DIN rail bracket with adaptor modules. As a Siemens education partner, we can also provide you with software to control these upon request.

Learning objectives:

• Factory control and automation systems
• Software design for automation
• DC motor and stepper drives
• Conveyor and gantry systems
• Vacuum pick and place systems
• Component sensing and sorting
• System design with more than one controller (some systems)

The Smart Factory is compatible with the AllCode robot arm production cell, which can be added to provide a powerful and interesting Industry 4.0 solution.