Abstract: With the implementation of GMP standards in the pharmaceutical industry, the automation level of electrical control systems for pharmaceutical machinery is increasing. Tableting machines were developed relatively late in China, but high-speed rotary tablet presses are the mainstream in the market. In the tablet press filling system, the host controller controls the servo motor via a fieldbus, thus meeting the requirements for rapid adjustment and high precision. Kinco, as one of the first manufacturers in China to develop CAN bus solutions, has successfully applied its ED series servo system, which fully supports the standard CAN bus, to high-speed rotary tablet presses.
Keywords: Kinco ED servo, CAN bus, high-speed rotary tablet press, filling system
I. System Overview
A tablet press, as the name suggests, is a machine that compresses dry granular or powdered materials into tablets using a mold. Tablet presses originated in Europe and America, but their development in China began in the 1990s. In recent years, with the development of domestic technology and the continuous expansion of market demand, high-speed rotary tablet presses have emerged. In these presses, the linear speed of the mold shaft rotating with the turntable is no less than 60 m/min, and the hourly output exceeds 100,000 tablets. In today's society where labor costs are increasingly high, this type of machine has quickly become the most competitive tablet press on the market. This article introduces the application of Kinco ED servo CAN bus in the filling system of a high-speed rotary tablet press.
Figure 1: High-speed rotary tablet press Figure 2: Filling system Figure 3: KINCO servo drive
II. Process Introduction
The basic structure of a tablet press consists of a die, feeding mechanism, filling mechanism, pressing and tableting unit. Filling is controlled by changing the volume of the die orifice to control the amount of granules added. In a rotary tablet press, filling is achieved by adjusting the height of the filling track. As shown in the diagram, rotating handle 1 and adjusting rod 2 causes the worm gear 3 to drive the worm wheel 4 to rotate. The center of the worm wheel is connected to the filling track via a thread. When the worm wheel rotates, the filling track moves up and down; therefore, the vertical position of the track determines the filling volume. Thus, the control precision of the servo motor driving the worm gear directly determines the final dosage of the compressed tablet powder, requiring very high precision!
In accordance with national GMP regulations for the pharmaceutical industry, the system requires modularity and integration; therefore, fieldbus technology is adopted. The CAN bus is the earliest and most suitable fieldbus for machine automation. It integrates automatic control, communication, sensing, computer, diagnostic, microelectronics, and network technologies, making it a revolutionary technology that is being widely applied in various fields of automation.
The Kinco ED series servo is a standard CAN slave device, strictly adhering to the CANopen 2.0A/B protocol, allowing communication with any host computer that supports this protocol. As a pioneer in bus solutions for machine automation, Kinco's ED series servo CAN bus system solution provides efficient, reliable, and cost-effective solutions for machine automation equipment.
This system requires the following servo system specifications:
• Fast response speed, suitable for rapid adjustment in high-speed tablet presses.
• The adjustment accuracy can reach 0.01mm, which is high.
Modular, automated, and easy to maintain
III. Solution Configuration
Features of Kinco solutions:
The servo driver supporting CANopen bus control ensures system modularity and integration.
The CAN bus speed of up to 1Mbps ensures control precision.
The acceleration, deceleration, target position, target velocity, acceleration/deceleration curves, and other parameters for each action can be set via CANopen communication, maximizing the fulfillment of on-site process requirements.
IV. System Configuration:
System Configuration Table
Serial Number | name | model | quantity | Remark |
1 | PLC section | Customer specifies brand and model | 1 | With CANopen control |
2 | HMI section | 1 | With CANopen control | |
3 | CAN communication module | 1 | ||
4 | servo driver | ED430-0020-AA-K-000 | 2 | Servo driver with CANopen bus functionality |
5 | Servo motor | SMH60S-0020-30AAK-3LKL | 2 | High-density motor |
V. Summary
Kinco ED servo motors have been successfully used for many years by a large domestic high-speed tablet press manufacturer. The positioning accuracy and product stability meet the customer's requirements. Its high cost performance has made a significant impact in the industry and has a high market share.
