The Design and manufacture o f an

A u t o m a t i c Wrapping M a c h i n e
Jen-Chang Lin , Jen-Chao Tai, Hsing-Hsin Huang Department of Mechanical Engineering Ming-Hsin Institute of Technology & Commerce Hsinchu, Taiwan 30404, R.O.C. TEL: (035)593142-311 FAX(035)595142

belts, pulleys, an so on, except the pneumatic or hydrolic devices. The wrapping machine is required to equipped with the following functions.

1 . The P.E. wrapping paper must be transported

smoothly.

2 . The food box must be delivered t o a specified

position.

3 . The food box must be packed tightly. 4. The wrapping paper should be shrinked
box.

on the food

ABSTRACT The goal of this project is t o design an Automatic Wrapping Machine (AWM) which can be used in industry and commerce. The A W M consists of t w o portions. The first portion is the wrapping mechanism, which is designed t o wrap the fresh food that is commonly sold in supermaket. The second portion is the control system that controls the wrapping mechanism. The control system includes a 8051 single chip CPU that controls the wrapping procedures for the AWM. The wrapping period for each food package is about I O seconds. One important feature of the project is that the machine is 100% completed by the teachers and students of Ming-Hsin Institute of Technology and Commerce. We have completed this project in Nov.1994. By this project, we got lots of practical experiences and many idea about AWM. INTRODUCTION

5. The A W M should be able t o weight the food box

automatically. (optional)

6.

The A W M should be able t o tag the food box automatically. (optional)

PRINCIPLE OF DESIGN THE A W M There are several principles for the design of the AWM.

1 . In order t o reduce the weight of the machine, w e

use aluminum t o make the construction of this system.

2 . For the convenience of test and the operation

safty, the A W M should be controlled automatically and manually.

3. The size and the complexity of the mechanisms

should be reduced as possible as w e can.

4. Adjustable package rate are preferable t o keep the

flexibility of the A W M .
3.

The wrapping mechanism should be adaptable t o different sizes of food box.

Recently, the cost of labor and material has been rising day by day. The industry is forced t o face the fact that cheap labor no longer available. In this condition, automatic production is the tendency of the industry. So, how to develope and design an automatic machine becomes an important topic of this century. Sponsored by Ministry of Education and Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), We have taken a five-months training cource in ITRI, and spent the rest of seven months t o implement the project. The period of the project is one year, which starts from Dec. 1993 to Nov. 1994. Finally, we have an exhibition in Taipei Technology Institute in Nov.1994.

6 . For the safty and reliability,some protection devices

and detectors are necessary.

7. It

is desirable t o find the proper w a y t o absorb or

isolate the source of vibration so that the noise can be reduced.

8. The

construction

and

maintenance

should

be

easy,so that the machine can be set up or taken apart quickly.

9 . The operation procedures should be simple. 10 For the convenience of part replacement, using the
standard specification parts is recommended. THE FEATURES A N D F U N C T I O N S OF OUR A W M

DESIGN SPECIFICATION OF THE A W N

There are some specialties of our AWM:

According t o the design specification from ITRI, w e are allowed t o use the linkages, cams, gears or racks, rollers, chains,

1. It is adaptable t o different sizes of food box. (From

90"
x 90"

0-7803-2646-6

-- 698 -

x 25"

to

200"

x 200mm x

IRES E ARCH A C H I EVE M ENT

The automatic wrapping machine (AWM) can be widely used in different fields. For cornmercial and industrial applications, its cost should be cheap enough so that it is competitive in the market. Estimately, w e can low down the price t o 60%

of the import wrapping machines. The principle 'of the AWM is as follows. We use the AC motors to drive the four movements, ie, Clip, Lift, Package and Shrinkage. The controller is a single chip microcomputer 8051 that controls the wrapping procedures of the AWM. The steps are as follows. Step 1. Clip the paper forward to the correct position.

IFig.61.

IFig.51

LFig.61. THE CONTROL S Y S T E M CIF THE A W M Step 2. Lift the food box t o a specified high position. 1. Controller For the efficiency and simplicity of the control system design, w e use a single chip 8051 t o control the wrapping procedures. The language used is assembly. [Fig.7].

2. Sensor
The position of each movement is detected by the limit switches.

ur
[Fig.71. Step 3. Pack the food box tightly. [Fig.81.

3. Actuators
All of the power of the wrapping procedure comes from the 60W AC motors. See below for the logic control diagram.

Logic procedure

Sensors

[Fig 81.
I

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70).

2 . It is light weight (not more than 40 kgs), and rigid

(We used the 6061 1 6 aluminum hollow beam t o make the frames).

3. It is cheap. The price for each AWM should be

cheaper than one hundred thousand N.T. dollors. (Mass production).

4. The packing rate can be adjusted b y changing the

gear ratio.

Poilet 2 r n n t t 01

t h e ?peed

5 . L o w noise.(Under 48 dB).
STRUCTURE O F THE A W M There are four major mechanisms of the AWM [Fig. 1I : The main function of the hold mechanism is t o hold the food box. Once the box is moved t o the holder, it will lift the box upward t o the packing position. See [Fig.41. LFig.31.

3. The holder mechanism

[Fig.ll : [Fig.41. 1, The transport mechanism The mechanism consists of t w o AC motors and a set of gear and rack. The clip can move forward t o clamp the P.E. paper, then pull backward t o the original position. See [Fig.21. 4. The package mechanism This is the most important portion of this machine. It consists of a clamp mechanism and a heating device. While the holder lift the food package up t o the specified position, the clamp starts t o grasp the food box. The four fingers of the clamp will grasp the box and the wrapping paper tightly. In the same time, the heating devices which is attached on the end of each finger will shrink the wrapping paper. After about 1 seLFig.21. cond, the clamp will release the box and complete the package operation.

2. The wrapping paper convey mechanism

The key points are the shape of clamp and the temperaThere are t w o rollors t o convey the P.E. paper, and t w o rollors t o control its tention. Outside the convey mechanism is a wire cutter, which is used t o cut the paper after each package. In order t o cut the paper quickly and safe, the wire is heated
by an electrical device. See IFig.31.

ture of heater should be adjusted for different boxes and wrapping papers. These factors affect the operation of packing. Hence, the design of the clamp is very difficult. In the mean time, the control of the force of the clamp and the tention of wrapping paper is also a troublesome problem. See LFig.51.

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Step 4. Turn heater on t o shrink the wrapping paper. IFig.91.

LFig.91. CONCLUSION

In this project, We have designed and manufactured an automatic warapping machine. Even the appearance of the prototype A W M is not commercialized, and the functionality of the controller is not stable yet, We assure that next version of the A W M will have much better performance in the following projects. Finally, We wish t o appreciate both Ministry of Education and ITRl for giving us this opportunity t o construct the A'JVM. We'll remodify this machine continuously and make it perfectly in the future.

REFERENCES:

1, Kinematic and Dynamic of Machines ,

Geoge H.Matin 2. Analysis and Design of Mechanics, Deane Lent

3. Design of Machine Element,

M.F. Spotts

4. Mechanical Engineering Design,

Joseph Edward Shigley, Larry D. Mitchell

5. The Design of Machine Element

Min-Der Ju Jen-Chang Lin,etc.

6. Microprocessors and Interfacing

Douglas V. Hall

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