Design and Fabrication of PLC Based Conveyor System with Programmable Station

The conveyors are the basic primitive component of material handling. There are various types of conveyors used in industry like belt conveyor, chain conveyor, gravity conveyor, etc. The basic features of conveyor systems are not only to convey the objects but also to stop at predefined locations for some operation. The dissertation on conveyor is taken up to design and manufacture a table top model, with programmable number of stations and relevant control panel. The proposed conveyor is 780mm long, capable of conveying the objects of 60 cubic mm size, The number of stations are programmable from 2 to 5, with or without interlocks. The efficient use of timers and counters are incorporated to optimize the i/os. The proposed conveyor is PLC based and with little amendment, it will be coupled with the palletizer. The advanced programming features of PLC with respect to timers and counters and programmable variable inputs are the key operating features which minimizes the input and outputs as required by PLC.