Hancock Engineering uses HMI and Control applications for industrial machinery.

A Human-Machine Interface or HMI is the apparatus which presents process data to a human operator, and through this, the human operator, monitors and controls the process. It consists of custom controls and modules which make it easy to configure the control system by simply dropping controls on VB forms, and changing properties of those controls to define how the application will interact with the control hardware on the machine. The custom controls included in the system handle the following types of functions: Manual, Automatic, Time, Temp, Adjust Setup, and Reporting. The control system is made up of a computer, a PLC, and a servo sub system. Most machine control I/O (Input/Output) is done through the PLC. This PLC can be a Siemens, Allen Bradley, Omron, or GE PLC. The software in the computer specifies the memory locations and timers used to interact with the logic running in the PLC. The system also supports servo control systems by Delta Tau and Indramat. These servo systems are used to control the indexing of the chains on these machines. Servo systems can also be used for presses and other functions on the machines using very basic control parameters.

The computer used should be an industrial computer, and can include an analog card and Encoder or Motion Control Card. The analog card used is a Metrabyte DAS8 or a clone of that card (AIO8 for example). The software used for this system is a program named HMICTRL.EXE, and is a Windows application providing a user interface to the operator of the machine.

The screens used in this software are MANUAL FUNCTIONS, TIMES, TEMPS, RECIPES, DOORS, COUNTERS, PRODUCTION, SETUP, ADJUST, SERVOS and other supporting graph and data viewing screens. The data files define which controls appear on those screens, where those controls show up, what functions those controls perform, and how they interface with the PLC. The analog card is used for reading thermocouple information and the Control program uses this information to control temperatures. This card is also used for feedback for some adjustment functions. The encoder board or motion control board is used for reading encoders for X/Y adjustments.

The PLC's used by the program are connected to the computer by a serial port. The software includes drivers for various types of PLC's and communicates with them through PLC memory locations and timers. Individual bits in memory locations, whole memory locations, and timer presets are used to provide control data, diagnostics information, setpoints, and actual values to and from the PLC. The low level control logic and time-dependent functions of the machine are handled by the PLC, since the serial interface is not generally fast enough to handle real time control functions. A watch dog timer in the PLC safeguards against computer lockups causing dangerous control system failures. Cycle timing and certain adjustments are performed by the PLC logic, and the timers in the PLC are programmed by the computer to control temperatures.

The servo systems supported by this software are Delta Tau MCC and PMAC, and Indramat CLC systems. Delta Tau MCC cards are stand alone cards connected to the computer by a serial port. Indramat CLC cards are more modern servo control cards integrated into the Indramat servo systems. They are connected to the computer by a serial port as well. Delta Tau PMAC cards are multi-axis servo control cards capable of controlling from two to eight axis simultaneously. The PMAC cards may be internal to the computer, or connected serially as a stand-alone card or as part of a Delta Tau PMAC-PAC. All servo control cards are programmed with a set feedrate, and index program based on user input to the program. These servo systems are then indexed automatically by the PLC logic, and are therefore synchronized with the other functions of the machine.