FATEK Automation Corporation

The inception and development of this project are rooted in the vast scale of the global consumer goods market and the urgent need for transformation and upgrading within the manufacturing sector. With population growth and changing consumption habits, toothbrushes, as daily necessities, exhibit an extremely large and stable market demand. Traditional toothbrush packaging primarily relies on manual operations, which are not only inefficient and costly but also result in inconsistent packaging quality, making it difficult to guarantee uniform hygiene standards. This inefficient production model has become a bottleneck restricting companies from expanding capacity and reducing costs. Concurrently, the continuous rise in labor costs and the prominence of "labor shortage" issues have turned automation from an "option" into a "necessity." Intensifying market competition also drives companies to seek enhanced product appearance quality to strengthen their brand image, where refined and uniform packaging is a key link in achieving this goal.

Toothbrush packaging itself involves complex processes, typically including steps such as loading brush heads, inserting into trays, applying inner film, placing into outer boxes, coding, and carton sealing. The varied shapes and soft materials pose extremely high demands on the grasping, positioning, and sealing technologies of automated equipment. Existing general-purpose packaging machinery often struggles to adapt to the flexible production needs of non-standard, irregular products like toothbrushes. Therefore, developing a highly integrated, intelligent, and flexible dedicated toothbrush packaging line, capable of achieving full-process automation from loose components to finished cartons and precisely addressing multiple pain points such as production efficiency, packaging yield, labor costs, and hygiene standards, has become an inevitable trend in industry development.

The advancement of this project is precisely in response to this market demand. Through the deep integration of automation and information technology, it aims to assist manufacturing enterprises in achieving cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and quality upgrade, thereby building a core competitive advantage in the fierce market landscape.

This solution is designed based on the project's comprehensive requirements for motion control and logic control. The core system requirement lies in precisely coordinating four SC3 series high-performance servo motors and a certain number of solenoid valve groups to automate and synchronize processes such as feeding, positioning, boxing, pressing, and carton sealing.

To this end, this project employs a FATEK PLC to construct the control architecture, specifically configured with the main unit FBS-60MCT and the expansion module FBS-16YT. The core advantage of this configuration lies in its high integration and specialized division of tasks: the FBS-60MCT main unit has built-in 4-axis independent high-speed pulse outputs, enabling direct and precise driving of the four SC3 servos without the need for additional motion control modules. This simplifies the system structure and ensures the stability and accuracy of pulse commands. This design guarantees the fast response and strict synchronization of each servo axis during complex packaging processes, such as implementing continuous flying cut, fixed-length feeding, or multi-axis interpolation motion. Concurrently, the 60-point I/O resources of the FBS-60MCT unit itself provide ample signal access points for the entire line's photoelectric sensors, encoders, start/stop buttons, etc.

The expansion module FBS-16YT is specifically responsible for driving the large number of solenoid valves in the actuators. Its 16-point transistor output characteristic provides high-frequency, highly reliable switching signals for controlling components such as pneumatic grippers, folding mechanisms, lifting cylinders, and glue dispensing valves, effectively isolating the power load from interfering with the core control unit.

The entire system utilizes the FATEK PLC for centralized program scheduling, achieving seamless integration and efficient coordination between the precise position control of the servo system and the discrete logic control of the pneumatic system. This ensures precise packaging cadence, reliable movements, and high final product quality. This architecture meets all current functional and performance indicators while also reserving the necessary flexibility for subsequent functional optimization and capacity increase.

► Control Architecture
Adopts a combined solution of "Semi-closed-loop Control + Full-closed-loop Detection".
Balances the stability of semi-closed-loop control with the precision of full-closed-loop detection, delivering notable effectiveness.

► Synchronization Technology
Utilizes the linear interpolation function of the PLC to achieve precise synchronous separation of finished products and waste materials.
Effectively prevents material tearing and significantly enhances product quality.

► Shutdown Protection
Utilizes the full-closed-loop system to record positions in real time.
Enables quick position recovery after unexpected shutdowns, reducing material and labor time losses.

► Comprehensive Benefits
While ensuring high performance, the system is stable and easy to maintain, offering outstanding overall performance.