PackTrak Explorer

One of the challenges with any innovative technology is giving the user the tools they need to operate it. With PackTrakTM, the possibility of making production line software programmable becomes reality. However, to fully utilize this new technology, Jacobs Automation developed a Windows .Net  based linear motor control tool called PackTrak Explorer.  PackTrak Explorer is the primary platform for designing motion profiles for PackTrak.                

PackTrak Explorer allows you to design motion recipes offline using any Windows based pc. Steps provided:  (1) specifying your track section(‘s) layout by adding together straight and/or curve sections; (2) specify an initial number of PackTrak movers for a motion profile; and (3) create motion segments by specifying trapezoidal, constant, dwell,  or accel/decel moves.

Each time you add a virtual track segment, PackTrak Explorer prevents you from exceeding the track’s maximum speed, accel/decel limits and eliminates mover collisions.  If you run against these design limits, you can simply add another mover which decreases the demands on all existing movers. 

Generally, PackTrak customers install sufficient movers for the most challenging packaging application and then add longer dwell times for the extra movers on less challenging applications.

An advantage of PackTrak movers is their control independence; each mover can follow a different motion profile or you can have groups of movers follow the same profile.  Take for instance a pouching/Horizontal-Form-Fill-Seal application, the left side movers that clamp the pouches follow one profile and the right side movers follow another.

Additional applications include straight track configurations where one mover profile handles up and down motion, another mover’s profile handles rotation, and the remaining movers handle the product with the same profile offset by distance.  When you combine different profiles on one track, PackTrak Explorer implements a “super rules” checker to ensure that at no point do movers crash into each other.

Once you’ve completed your motion recipe, you simply export it to a XML or CSV text file which your HMI can than import and add to a menu of recipes.  The packaging line operator then selects the recipe for the particular product being run at the time. When selected, the recipe is downloaded via tags to the controller as a set of cam profiles for each mover acting as a servo-axis and the PackTrak system works as any other multiple servo-axis based system.