Mail Sorting Equipment

Target Design Conciliation & Application Review

Target application and engineering staff meets with customer to define overall machine performance requirements:

Synchronized motion for each sort station

Axis performance requirements

High I/O count capability

High throughput with lowest cost technology.

Review of technology and cost comparisons: DC Brush motors, Step Motors, Servomotors and related drive and control for each motor technology

Product Technology Selected

Target performed an extensive review of the performance requirements for each axis and selected the motor and the drive required for each axis. Because of aggressive cost goals, Step Motor technology was selected as the most cost effective approach. Another challenge was the high I/O count required.

Armed with detailed I/O requirements, Target’s engineering staff had developed, the appropriate controller driver was selected.; Intelligent Motion Systems uLynx Step Motor Controller and Driver product.

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Design Implementation

The high I/O count of the machine design was met by the expandable I/O capabilities of the uLynx. By adding appropriate option cards, all of the I/O were able to be read by a single uLynx. In addition, because all of the axes are synchronized, a high speed differential card was employed in the uLynx to provide step and direction to several slave axes. This significantly reduced overall machine cost by using a single control to run multiple axes.

Overall Success

Machine design went to manufacturing with some minor software changes and met the cost / performance goals set forth by the customer. Due to the success of the control design, the next generation product will use the same control platform with cost reductions targeted in other areas.