Abstract: The fully automated packaging and palletizing production line designed in this paper mainly consists of an automatic quantitative packaging machine, an automatic bag feeding unit, a sealing system, a bag inverting machine, a metal detector, a weight inspection machine, a sorting machine, an inkjet printer, and a palletizer. The entire production line is automatically controlled by a programmable logic controller (PLC), which provides audible and visual alarms for malfunctions, insufficient material supply, untimely bag feeding, or untimely pallet unloading. This equipment features simple operation, reliable performance, and convenient maintenance.
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of science and technology and the continuous improvement of productivity, people are paying increasing attention to reducing labor intensity and improving the working environment. Industries such as petrochemicals, fertilizers, and grains are also placing increasingly higher demands on packaging quality and labor efficiency, thus promoting the modernization of these enterprises. Traditional manual packaging, due to its low production efficiency, has become a major obstacle to improving output and packaging quality in these industries and can no longer meet the needs of modern large-scale production. Users have stricter requirements for packaging to facilitate product transportation and storage; packaging has become a key factor for enterprise upgrading and economic benefits. Therefore, improving product packaging quality as soon as possible is one of the urgent tasks of these industries and a requirement of users. Internationally, companies such as NEWLONG (Japan), BL (UK), and ORY (USA) have mastered advanced packaging technologies. Currently, China mainly relies on imports for fully automatic packaging and palletizing equipment, with few domestic manufacturers. The market is calling for domestically produced fully automatic packaging production lines. In the new century, with the vigorous development of various undertakings in my country and the opportunities and challenges faced by the knowledge economy, packaging and palletizing machinery will play an increasingly important role, generating immeasurable economic benefits for national production.
Packaging and palletizing production lines are high-tech mechatronics products suitable for industries such as chemical, grain, food, and pharmaceutical. They automate all operations related to powdered, granular, and lumpy materials (such as plastics, fertilizers, synthetic rubber, and grains), including weighing, bag feeding, bag filling, folding, sealing, bag shaping, metal detection, weight re-inspection, batch number printing, indexing and grouping, palletizing, and pallet and stack conveying. A programmable logic controller (PLC) automatically controls the entire production line, providing audible and visual alarms for malfunctions, insufficient material supply, untimely bag feeding, or untimely pallet unloading. This equipment is characterized by its simple operation, reliable performance, and convenient maintenance. In short, a packaging and palletizing production line consists of packaging machinery and palletizing machinery, with the packaging machinery being the primary component. The palletizing machinery evolved from and separated from the packaging production line.
2. Composition of the automated packaging and palletizing production line system
Automated packaging and palletizing production lines are mainly used in the chemical, grain, food, and pharmaceutical industries for the fully automated packaging and palletizing of powdered, granular, and lumpy materials. The automated packaging and palletizing production line can be divided into a packaging section and a palletizing section. The packaging section performs functions such as quantitative weighing, automatic bag feeding, bag filling, clamping and shaping, edge folding and sewing, metal detection, and weight re-inspection. The palletizing section performs functions such as indexing and grouping, bag pushing and pressing, palletizing, pallet supply, and pallet conveying.
1. The electronic weighing machine is the starting unit of the packaging machine. Its function is to complete the fixed-value weighing and feeding of materials.
2. An automatic bag feeding machine consists of components such as a bag feeder, a bag suction device, a bag conveyor, a bag receiver, and a bag picker. The fully automatic bag feeding process is completed automatically by the bag feeding machinery; the operator only needs to stack the empty bags into the spare compartment of the bag feeding machine as required.
3. The automatic bagging machine consists of a transition hopper, a bag-picking and opening conveying device, a door-flipping and necking device, and a frame. The transition hopper is a transitional device connecting the bagging machine to the electronic weighing machine. It can store one bag of material, increasing the weighing speed of the electronic weighing machine, reducing material drop, reducing dust generation, facilitating dust removal, and ensuring that the material is smoothly fed into the bagging machine while preventing the vibration generated by the bagging machine from being transmitted to the electronic weighing machine.
4. Rotation conveyor: A device that changes the orientation of the incoming material bags.
5. The packing machine is used to pack the bags delivered by the indexing conveyor into 2-3 or 3-2 packing according to the stacking requirements. That is, each layer of the stack consists of two bags vertically and three bags horizontally, or three bags horizontally and two bags vertically, alternating between the two.
6. Bag pushing, pressing, layering, and lifting: The bag pushing machine pushes the numbered bags to the buffer zone and shapes and flattens them during layering and stacking. The bags are then pushed to the layering machine, which places them onto the pallet on the lifting machine, completing the stacking of one layer of bags.
7. Pallet compartment: This is the part that stores a certain number of pallets and automatically completes the pallet transportation process.
3 Control System Hardware Design
Since the various controls in the packaging production line are switching inputs, and the currently popular PLCs have the characteristics of compact structure, high operating speed, good versatility, and high reliability, they are very suitable for switching control in harsh industrial environments such as high temperature, vibration, and dust. Therefore, a PLC was selected as the core component of the control system. This automated packaging and palletizing production line has complex motion relationships and a large number of I/O points, primarily using switching input control; therefore, the Mitsubishi FX2N series PLC from Japan was selected as the core control component.
3.1 PLC Control System Hardware Design
The PLC control system is the core component of the entire packaging production line. During the packaging process, numerous actions and complex movements necessitate a control system with high reliability, effective energy-saving measures, and strong fault diagnosis capabilities to ensure stable production operation. Since the various controls in the packaging production line involve switching quantities, complex action relationships, and a large number of I/O points, the Mitsubishi FX2N series PLC from Japan was selected. This series of PLCs features a modular structure, allowing for flexible configuration to meet the needs of the control system.
① Hardware configuration
The hardware configuration includes the FX2N basic unit, FX2N expansion unit, detection elements (photoelectric switches, proximity switches, vacuum switches, etc.), human-machine interface (buttons, indicator lights, etc.), control elements (AC contactors, frequency converters, solenoid valves, etc.), and actuators (motors and cylinders, etc.).
② FX2N Series PLC Input/Output Expansion Method: The FX2N series PLC is a unit-type programmable controller composed of a power supply, CPU, input/output components, and program memory. Its main unit is called the basic unit, and it is equipped with "expansion units (power supply I/O) and expansion modules (I/O)" to expand the number of input/output points. Furthermore, special expansion devices can be connected for specific control applications.
When organizing the FX2N series, the following points must be considered:
The total number of input/output points should be controlled within 256 points, of which the number of input points and output points should not exceed 184 points each; the capacity of the DC24V power supply and the DC5V power supply: the basic unit and the expansion unit are equipped with power supplies, which can supply DC24V power to the expansion modules and DC5V power to the special modules. Therefore, the power consumption of the expansion modules and special modules should be controlled within the power supply range of the basic unit and the expansion unit.
For the FX2N basic unit, the maximum number of external special units and special modules is eight. Regarding the numbering of input/output serial numbers, the FX2N series PLC uses the following numbering method:
(1) The serial numbers of the input relay (X) and output relay (Y) are assigned octal numbers starting from the basic unit and according to the connection order.
(2) Special extended equipment and PLC use the PLC's FROM and T0 instructions to exchange data information, but input and output relays do not occupy serial numbers.
3.2 Electrical schematic diagram of the control system
The system power supply adopts a three-phase four-wire system. The power supply level is AC380±5%, 50Hz. The main power supply provides power to the entire machine through the main low-voltage circuit breaker QF0. Specifically, QF1 provides power to the packaging section motors M1.1 to M10.1, QF2 provides power to the palletizing section motors M11.1 to M20.1, QF3 provides power to the detection motors M21.1 to M25.1, and QF4 provides power to the printer, metal detector, and weight re-inspection execution motors M26.1 to M30.1. The main circuit of ordinary motors includes AC contactors and thermal relays, and the brake motors also include auxiliary circuits for the braking unit.
The grounding protection of the entire machine is connected to the grounding protection network of the system. Figure 1 shows the main circuit diagram of the electrical control system.
Figure 1 shows the main circuit diagram of the electrical control system.
4 Control System Software Design
The automated packaging and palletizing production line can automatically complete functions such as weighing, bag feeding, bag removal, bag filling, sewing, conveying, metal detection, weight detection, and palletizing. The mechanical system of the fully automated packaging and palletizing production line mainly includes a fully automated weighing unit, a packaging unit, a conveying and detection unit, and a palletizing unit. Its main process flow is as follows: Material enters the feeding device of the packaging scale from the storage hopper, achieving two-stage feeding through coarse and fine feeding. When the weight of the material in the hopper reaches the final set value, the weighing terminal sends a stop feeding signal. After all the airborne material falls into the hopper, this weighing cycle ends. At this time, the electronic packaging scale awaits the feeding signal from the bagging machine. After the automatic bagging machine finishes loading the bags, it sends a signal to open the unloading gate of the weighing box, allowing material to be fed into the packaging bags. After unloading, the weighing box closes the gate, and the bagging machine opens the bag clamps. The packaging bags pass through the clamping and shaping machine and the upright bag conveyor into the automatic folding machine. After folding, the packaging bags enter the sewing machine. When the photoelectric switch next to the sewing machine detects the packaging bag, the sewing machine starts working and sews the packaging bag. When the packaging bag leaves the sewing machine, the sewing machine stops and automatically cuts the seam thread. The packaging bags pass through the bag-turning and shaping machine and then enter the metal detector and weight re-inspection machine. If the inspection fails, the packaging bags will be rejected when passing through the automatic picking machine, while qualified packaging bags pass smoothly through the automatic picking machine. Then, through the inkjet printer, transition conveyor, slow stop machine, and other equipment, the packaging bags are transported to the palletizing unit. The transposition machine transposes the bags according to the palletizing process requirements in a cycle of "2 bags vertical - 3 bags horizontal" and "3 bags horizontal - 2 bags vertical". The packaging bags then enter the grouping machine in pairs (two bags vertically) or three bags horizontally. Finally, the palletizer stacks the bags onto pallets, typically in stacks of eight layers. After stacking, the pallet conveyor transports the bags out of the stacking area and onto the pallet conveyor in the forklift area. The pallets used by the palletizer are automatically provided by the pallet warehouse and pallet conveyor according to the program. Figure 2 shows the process flow diagram of the automated packaging and palletizing production line.
Figure 2 Process flow diagram of packaging and palletizing production line
5. System Anti-interference Measures
Interference in the input and output circuits of a PLC system, or induced voltage, can easily cause erroneous input signals, which in turn lead to incorrect control signals. Therefore, it is essential to implement effective anti-interference measures to ensure stable controller operation and improve the overall reliability of the control system.
5.1 Immunity to power supply interference
(1) Using an isolation transformer: Using an isolation transformer to properly ground the shielding layer has a good effect on suppressing interference signals in the power grid. In order to improve the anti-interference effect of the isolation transformer, two points must be noted: first, the shielding layer must be properly grounded; second, twisted-pair cables must be used for the secondary connection lines. Twisted-pair cables can reduce interference between power lines.
(2) Using a filter instead of an isolation transformer can provide some protection against power grid interference within a certain frequency range. The conventional method is to use both a filter and an isolation transformer. The connection method is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 shows a system that uses both filters and isolation transformers.
(3) Separate power supply system separates the power supply of controller, I/O channel and other devices, which also helps to resist power grid interference.
This system adopts a separate power supply system, with the PLC controller located far from the power supply system.
5.2 Prevention of I/O signal interference
In addition to using filters and ensuring proper grounding of the controller to suppress interference, several anti-input interference measures are introduced below.
(1) When there is an inductive load at the input terminal, in order to prevent back surge induced electromotive force, a capacitor C and a resistor R are connected in parallel across the load terminals (for AC input signals), or a freewheeling diode VD is connected in parallel (for DC input signals). For AC input, the selection of C and R must be appropriate to achieve better results. A general reference value is: 0.1µF is generally used for load capacities below 20VA.
147Ω is suitable. If the inductive load connected in parallel with the input signal is large, using a relay will be more effective.
(2) Measures to prevent induced voltage: In cases where the induced voltage is large, if possible, change the AC input to DC input; connect a surge absorber in parallel at the input terminal (the function of the surge absorber is to prevent instantaneous high voltage from damaging the equipment); in cases of long-distance wiring and high current, where the induced voltage is large, a relay can be used for conversion.
6 Conclusions
The automated packaging and palletizing production line includes mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic systems. Although the equipment is complex, its operation is simple. It features multiple control panels or touchscreens for switching between automatic and manual operation. In manual operation, individual machines or actions can be controlled. Each control panel has multiple status and fault display windows to help operators understand the equipment's status.
Abstract: The fully automated packaging and palletizing production line designed in this paper mainly consists of an automatic quantitative packaging machine, an automatic bag feeding unit, a sealing system, a bag inverting machine, a metal detector, a weight inspection machine, a sorting machine, an inkjet printer, and a palletizer. The entire production line is automatically controlled by a programmable logic controller (PLC), which provides audible and visual alarms for malfunctions, insufficient material supply, untimely bag feeding, or untimely pallet unloading. This equipment features simple operation, reliable performance, and convenient maintenance.
1. Introduction
With the rapid development of science and technology and the continuous improvement of productivity, people are paying increasing attention to reducing labor intensity and improving the working environment. Industries such as petrochemicals, fertilizers, and grains are also placing increasingly higher demands on packaging quality and labor efficiency, thus promoting the modernization of these enterprises. Traditional manual packaging, due to its low production efficiency, has become a major obstacle to improving output and packaging quality in these industries and can no longer meet the needs of modern large-scale production. Users have stricter requirements for packaging to facilitate product transportation and storage; packaging has become a key factor for enterprise upgrading and economic benefits. Therefore, improving product packaging quality as soon as possible is one of the urgent tasks of these industries and a requirement of users. Internationally, companies such as NEWLONG (Japan), BL (UK), and ORY (USA) have mastered advanced packaging technologies. Currently, China mainly relies on imports for fully automatic packaging and palletizing equipment, with few domestic manufacturers. The market is calling for domestically produced fully automatic packaging production lines. In the new century, with the vigorous development of various undertakings in my country and the opportunities and challenges faced by the knowledge economy, packaging and palletizing machinery will play an increasingly important role, generating immeasurable economic benefits for national production.
Packaging and palletizing production lines are high-tech mechatronics products suitable for industries such as chemical, grain, food, and pharmaceutical. They automate all operations related to powdered, granular, and lumpy materials (such as plastics, fertilizers, synthetic rubber, and grains), including weighing, bag feeding, bag filling, folding, sealing, bag shaping, metal detection, weight re-inspection, batch number printing, indexing and grouping, palletizing, and pallet and stack conveying. A programmable logic controller (PLC) automatically controls the entire production line, providing audible and visual alarms for malfunctions, insufficient material supply, untimely bag feeding, or untimely pallet unloading. This equipment is characterized by its simple operation, reliable performance, and convenient maintenance. In short, a packaging and palletizing production line consists of packaging machinery and palletizing machinery, with the packaging machinery being the primary component. The palletizing machinery evolved from and separated from the packaging production line.
2. Composition of the automated packaging and palletizing production line system
Automated packaging and palletizing production lines are mainly used in the chemical, grain, food, and pharmaceutical industries for the fully automated packaging and palletizing of powdered, granular, and lumpy materials. The automated packaging and palletizing production line can be divided into a packaging section and a palletizing section. The packaging section performs functions such as quantitative weighing, automatic bag feeding, bag filling, clamping and shaping, edge folding and sewing, metal detection, and weight re-inspection. The palletizing section performs functions such as indexing and grouping, bag pushing and pressing, palletizing, pallet supply, and pallet conveying.
1. The electronic weighing machine is the starting unit of the packaging machine. Its function is to complete the fixed-value weighing and feeding of materials.
2. An automatic bag feeding machine consists of components such as a bag feeder, a bag suction device, a bag conveyor, a bag receiver, and a bag picker. The fully automatic bag feeding process is completed automatically by the bag feeding machinery; the operator only needs to stack the empty bags into the spare compartment of the bag feeding machine as required.
3. The automatic bagging machine consists of a transition hopper, a bag-picking and opening conveying device, a door-flipping and necking device, and a frame. The transition hopper is a transitional device connecting the bagging machine to the electronic weighing machine. It can store one bag of material, increasing the weighing speed of the electronic weighing machine, reducing material drop, reducing dust generation, facilitating dust removal, and ensuring that the material is smoothly fed into the bagging machine while preventing the vibration generated by the bagging machine from being transmitted to the electronic weighing machine.
4. Rotation conveyor: A device that changes the orientation of the incoming material bags.
5. The packing machine is used to pack the bags delivered by the indexing conveyor into 2-3 or 3-2 packing according to the stacking requirements. That is, each layer of the stack consists of two bags vertically and three bags horizontally, or three bags horizontally and two bags vertically, alternating between the two.
6. Bag pushing, pressing, layering, and lifting: The bag pushing machine pushes the numbered bags to the buffer zone and shapes and flattens them during layering and stacking. The bags are then pushed to the layering machine, which places them onto the pallet on the lifting machine, completing the stacking of one layer of bags.
7. Pallet compartment: This is the part that stores a certain number of pallets and automatically completes the pallet transportation process.
3 Control System Hardware Design
Since the various controls in the packaging production line are switching inputs, and the currently popular PLCs have the characteristics of compact structure, high operating speed, good versatility, and high reliability, they are very suitable for switching control in harsh industrial environments such as high temperature, vibration, and dust. Therefore, a PLC was selected as the core component of the control system. This automated packaging and palletizing production line has complex motion relationships and a large number of I/O points, primarily using switching input control; therefore, the Mitsubishi FX2N series PLC from Japan was selected as the core control component.
3.1 PLC Control System Hardware Design
The PLC control system is the core component of the entire packaging production line. During the packaging process, numerous actions and complex movements necessitate a control system with high reliability, effective energy-saving measures, and strong fault diagnosis capabilities to ensure stable production operation. Since the various controls in the packaging production line involve switching quantities, complex action relationships, and a large number of I/O points, the Mitsubishi FX2N series PLC from Japan was selected. This series of PLCs features a modular structure, allowing for flexible configuration to meet the needs of the control system.
① Hardware configuration
The hardware configuration includes the FX2N basic unit, FX2N expansion unit, detection elements (photoelectric switches, proximity switches, vacuum switches, etc.), human-machine interface (buttons, indicator lights, etc.), control elements (AC contactors, frequency converters, solenoid valves, etc.), and actuators (motors and cylinders, etc.).
② FX2N Series PLC Input/Output Expansion Method: The FX2N series PLC is a unit-type programmable controller composed of a power supply, CPU, input/output components, and program memory. Its main unit is called the basic unit, and it is equipped with "expansion units (power supply I/O) and expansion modules (I/O)" to expand the number of input/output points. Furthermore, special expansion devices can be connected for specific control applications.
When organizing the FX2N series, the following points must be considered:
The total number of input/output points should be controlled within 256 points, of which the number of input points and output points should not exceed 184 points each; the capacity of the DC24V power supply and the DC5V power supply: the basic unit and the expansion unit are equipped with power supplies, which can supply DC24V power to the expansion modules and DC5V power to the special modules. Therefore, the power consumption of the expansion modules and special modules should be controlled within the power supply range of the basic unit and the expansion unit.
For the FX2N basic unit, the maximum number of external special units and special modules is eight. Regarding the numbering of input/output serial numbers, the FX2N series PLC uses the following numbering method:
(1) The serial numbers of the input relay (X) and output relay (Y) are assigned octal numbers starting from the basic unit and according to the connection order.
(2) Special extended equipment and PLC use the PLC's FROM and T0 instructions to exchange data information, but input and output relays do not occupy serial numbers.
3.2 Electrical schematic diagram of the control system
The system power supply adopts a three-phase four-wire system. The power supply level is AC380±5%, 50Hz. The main power supply provides power to the entire machine through the main low-voltage circuit breaker QF0. Specifically, QF1 provides power to the packaging section motors M1.1 to M10.1, QF2 provides power to the palletizing section motors M11.1 to M20.1, QF3 provides power to the detection motors M21.1 to M25.1, and QF4 provides power to the printer, metal detector, and weight re-inspection execution motors M26.1 to M30.1. The main circuit of ordinary motors includes AC contactors and thermal relays, and the brake motors also include auxiliary circuits for the braking unit.
The grounding protection of the entire machine is connected to the grounding protection network of the system. Figure 1 shows the main circuit diagram of the electrical control system.
Figure 1 shows the main circuit diagram of the electrical control system.
4 Control System Software Design
The automated packaging and palletizing production line can automatically complete functions such as weighing, bag feeding, bag removal, bag filling, sewing, conveying, metal detection, weight detection, and palletizing. The mechanical system of the fully automated packaging and palletizing production line mainly includes a fully automated weighing unit, a packaging unit, a conveying and detection unit, and a palletizing unit. Its main process flow is as follows: Material enters the feeding device of the packaging scale from the storage hopper, achieving two-stage feeding through coarse and fine feeding. When the weight of the material in the hopper reaches the final set value, the weighing terminal sends a stop feeding signal. After all the airborne material falls into the hopper, this weighing cycle ends. At this time, the electronic packaging scale awaits the feeding signal from the bagging machine. After the automatic bagging machine finishes loading the bags, it sends a signal to open the unloading gate of the weighing box, allowing material to be fed into the packaging bags. After unloading, the weighing box closes the gate, and the bagging machine opens the bag clamps. The packaging bags pass through the clamping and shaping machine and the upright bag conveyor into the automatic folding machine. After folding, the packaging bags enter the sewing machine. When the photoelectric switch next to the sewing machine detects the packaging bag, the sewing machine starts working and sews the packaging bag. When the packaging bag leaves the sewing machine, the sewing machine stops and automatically cuts the seam thread. The packaging bags pass through the bag-turning and shaping machine and then enter the metal detector and weight re-inspection machine. If the inspection fails, the packaging bags will be rejected when passing through the automatic picking machine, while qualified packaging bags pass smoothly through the automatic picking machine. Then, through the inkjet printer, transition conveyor, slow stop machine, and other equipment, the packaging bags are transported to the palletizing unit. The transposition machine transposes the bags according to the palletizing process requirements in a cycle of "2 bags vertical - 3 bags horizontal" and "3 bags horizontal - 2 bags vertical". The packaging bags then enter the grouping machine in pairs (two bags vertically) or three bags horizontally. Finally, the palletizer stacks the bags onto pallets, typically in stacks of eight layers. After stacking, the pallet conveyor transports the bags out of the stacking area and onto the pallet conveyor in the forklift area. The pallets used by the palletizer are automatically provided by the pallet warehouse and pallet conveyor according to the program. Figure 2 shows the process flow diagram of the automated packaging and palletizing production line.
Figure 2 Process flow diagram of packaging and palletizing production line
5. System Anti-interference Measures
Interference in the input and output circuits of a PLC system, or induced voltage, can easily cause erroneous input signals, which in turn lead to incorrect control signals. Therefore, it is essential to implement effective anti-interference measures to ensure stable controller operation and improve the overall reliability of the control system.
5.1 Immunity to power supply interference
(1) Using an isolation transformer: Using an isolation transformer to properly ground the shielding layer has a good effect on suppressing interference signals in the power grid. In order to improve the anti-interference effect of the isolation transformer, two points must be noted: first, the shielding layer must be properly grounded; second, twisted-pair cables must be used for the secondary connection lines. Twisted-pair cables can reduce interference between power lines.
(2) Using a filter instead of an isolation transformer can provide some protection against power grid interference within a certain frequency range. The conventional method is to use both a filter and an isolation transformer. The connection method is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 shows a system that uses both filters and isolation transformers.
(3) Separate power supply system separates the power supply of controller, I/O channel and other devices, which also helps to resist power grid interference.
This system adopts a separate power supply system, with the PLC controller located far from the power supply system.
5.2 Prevention of I/O signal interference
In addition to using filters and ensuring proper grounding of the controller to suppress interference, several anti-input interference measures are introduced below.
(1) When there is an inductive load at the input terminal, in order to prevent back surge induced electromotive force, a capacitor C and a resistor R are connected in parallel across the load terminals (for AC input signals), or a freewheeling diode VD is connected in parallel (for DC input signals). For AC input, the selection of C and R must be appropriate to achieve better results. A general reference value is: 0.1µF is generally used for load capacities below 20VA.
147Ω is suitable. If the inductive load connected in parallel with the input signal is large, using a relay will be more effective.
(2) Measures to prevent induced voltage: In cases where the induced voltage is large, if possible, change the AC input to DC input; connect a surge absorber in parallel at the input terminal (the function of the surge absorber is to prevent instantaneous high voltage from damaging the equipment); in cases of long-distance wiring and high current, where the induced voltage is large, a relay can be used for conversion.
6 Conclusions
The automated packaging and palletizing production line includes mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic systems. Although the equipment is complex, its operation is simple. It features multiple control panels or touchscreens for switching between automatic and manual operation. In manual operation, individual machines or actions can be controlled. Each control panel has multiple status and fault display windows to help operators understand the equipment's status.
