Control systems modification of loading and unloading in oil filling machine based on programmable logic controller for manufacturing industry

This research was conducted in a manufacturing company that produces shock absorbers for two- and four- wheeled vehicles, chair dampers, railway dampers, and stay dampers. The components produced for two-wheeled vehicles are front forks, i.e., shock absorbers for the front of a two-wheeled vehicle, and oil cushion units, i.e., shock absorbers for the rear of a two-wheeled vehicle. The components produced for four-wheeled vehicles are shock absorbers of the standard, strut, and stay damper types. The oil filling machine is a machine used to automatically supply oil to the front fork unit. The machine uses a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) as the control system. We designed and made a loading and unloading control system for the oil filling machine. The existing oil filling machines in the front fork assembly line have the longest operator waiting time of all the processes in the front fork assembly line. Next, we modified the separate loading and unloading systems, which the control system joined with the main oil filling machine. The programming is modified using the CX-Programmer. In addition, the input and output components in the new jig are integrated with a panel control in the main oil filling machine using PLC Omron CJ1M, and seven additional inputs and three additional outputs. This modification decreases the waiting time from five seconds to zero seconds.