Simplifying Hopper Control and Reducing PLC Costs in Automated Bagging

Handling a wide array of materials ranging from delicate flour and seeds to abrasive asphalt and rocks requires robust machinery. For Nova Automation, a manufacturer of high-performance automated bagging and palletizing systems, ensuring the reliability of the hopper door control on their bagging lines—including the AVP-6, VBP-20, and OMB-4200 series—was a critical engineering priority.

Nova’s systems utilize large stainless-steel hoppers featuring a large gate at the bottom. This gate manages bulk and dribble filling, a precise process essential for accurate weight control. "We do a little bit of everything," explains Shaun Lorenzelli, Automated Controls Engineer at Nova. "Normally beans and seeds, but asphalt and rocks are something that we're also moving towards."

To actuate this mechanism, Nova sought a solution that delivered high-end servo performance without the architectural bloat of conventional motion control systems. Shaun recognized that conventional servo drives often forced machine builders to pay for complex features they would never use.

He found a more efficient path with Teknic’s MC-series of ClearPath integrated servo motors. Because the motion controller is built directly into the motor, the engineering team can pre-program precise velocity and position moves in the user interface, then simply trigger them via digital I/O. This architecture delivers high-precision servo control for the hopper gates while eliminating the need for a bulky external drive cabinet.

To bridge these motors to their Rockwell Automation architecture, Nova utilizes Teknic’s ClearLink EtherNet/IP IO motion controller. This combination allows for seamless integration into Studio 5000 while further consolidating component costs. Specifically, the ClearLink is capable of reading analog inputs directly, which allowed Nova to bypass the need for expensive proprietary PLC analog cards.

By utilizing the ClearLink for IO and motion control, Nova achieved a streamlined design that eliminates hardware redundancy. The reliability of the Teknic components has been proven over years of operation in the field.

"We've been using them now for about five years. They're fairly tried and tested and bulletproof," Shaun notes. "Everything around this application has shown us that these motors are great. Never had any issues with them, never had any faults, and the control is very simple, especially in Studio 5000."

For Nova Automation, the switch to ClearPath and ClearLink wasn't about sacrificing performance for price; it was about paying only for the utility they needed. Shaun concludes that the system is perfectly optimized for the application, noting that upgrading to a complex, conventional servo platform would be "a waste of money" when the Teknic system delivers the necessary precision with simplicity.