Industrial demonstrator development

Robotae has provided electrical and control engineering services to Archipelago Technology, assisting in the development of an advanced industrial demonstrator of their PowerDrop viscous liquid printing technology for a multi-national client.

Archipelago’s PowerDrop viscous liquid print head. Image courtesy of Archipelago Technology

These services have included:

• Design, build and commissioning of an electrical control cabinet, housing an Allen Bradley PLC, three-phase servo drives, safety circuit (including several interlocks), solid state relays, mains filters and circuit protection components.
• PLC software development
• Motor sizing calculations, determining which motors and reductions ratios to use
• Servo tuning
• Mechanical design of a ‘shuttle’—a linear axis that simulates a substrate passing under the print head on a production line. The shuttle accelerates to 4 m/s during the first 50 cm of travel, continues at constant speed under the print head, then comes to a stop in the last 50 cm, using a jerk-limited motion profile at accelerations up to 20 m/s², all synchronised with the rotation of the PowerDrop print drum.
• Specification and commissioning of a Festo fieldbus module providing pneumatic valves, pressure sensing, thermocouple and PT100 inputs, and digital I/O.
• Design and implementation of a touchscreen HMI
• Continued support and advice on an ad-hoc basis, enabling experiments and modifications to Archipelago’s process as needed

Archipelago’s CEO, Dr Guy Newcombe, comments “Kevin has provided an excellent all round service. He has worked well with both the Archipelago team and our client. I have no hesitation in recommending Robotae.”

Electrical control cabinet developed by Robotae for Archipelago Technology

Change of Paradigm

Housed in a specially built darkroom, the gonioreflectometer takes images of a textile sample (in the centre) from different angles using a camera on one arm, illuminated from many directions by a high quality spotlight on the other arm, to measure and characterise its reflective properties.