Over the past year I received a contact from a professor and student combination from Madison Area Technical College inquiring about the sizes available for our Line Vac products. They were using a 2″ Line Vac in one of their automation class labs and wanted to try something a little bigger for a new project. The 2″ Line Vac was one they had used in the past on different projects and had always worked well. The new project however increased the bag size and made the conveyance difficult for the 2″ Line Vac.
With the picture below of their current setup and a good understanding that they will be placing three items into a heat sealed bag that is roughly 3″ long and 2″ wide we settled on using the 3″ Aluminum Line Vac at a low pressure to convey the baggies to their secondary function. As you can see in the video below, the Line Vac is activated by a sensor and operates for just seconds in order to convey the bag of parts successfully to the other side of the machine cell where the bag is then picked and placed by a robotic arm.
After the project was completed we received a mention through social media, as well as a brief video showcasing the Line Vac in use. The video showcases how easy it is to install an EXAIR Line Vac into a tight space where adding other conventional mechanical conveying systems would be considerably more elaborate. The Line Vac is being controlled via a PLC that energizes a solenoid valve on a timer to convey the package in a matter of seconds.
We are very pleased to see the projects these kids turned out, and the leadership shown by Peter, their instructor. Manufacturing programs such as this one at Madison Area Technical College are important for our economy and for the future of these kids. We’d like to congratulate them all on their accomplishment.
If you have a project you are trying to move products from one point to another, contact us. If you are a professor, student, or even a mentor to an educational program that would benefit from EXAIR products, please contact me directly.
Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF