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Application
rosive gas, uids and water that can
affect the components of the system.
The B&R solution offers easy opera-
tor installation and complies with the
Nema 4X regulations (IP67).
The results
Systemex, Rotalec and B&R de-signed, installed and tested the El-
cotech automation system in only a
few weeks. The time to market was
critical for Elcotech and the B&R solu-
tion met this criterion and exceeded
Elcotechs expectations. Given how
important it is for leaders in electro-
dewatering to protect their intellec-
tual property, Elcotech can now sell
their machines worldwide without
any concerns.
Cobble/Tufting Machine Co, Inc., USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Spencer Wright Industries, Inc., is at the forefront of tufting machinery
technology worldwide. Cobble manufactures specialized multi-needle
sewing machines to create textiles, in particular carpet.
they knew they needed a partner who
could supply them with the products
necessary to meet their very critical
applications. Their previous platform
had become outdated and superseded
by newer technologies. They wanted
a relationhip with a oltion pro-
vider that offered both hardware and
software capabilities for the long term.
In the end it was B&Rs product range
depth and B&R usA partner PiedmontAutomations interaction which gave
Cobble the condence to choose
B&Rs solution.
The B&R product range Cobble is
currently using covers all of their ma-
chine types which require servo and
patterning I/O point. cobble refer
to these machines as pattern attach-
ment machines that include Colortec,
LCL (Level Cut Loop), FRS (Full Repeat
Scroll) and any other machine type
reqiring ervo motor and/or pat-
terning control. When Cobble began
development with B&R and Piedmont
none of their competitors were able
to offer these machine types. Colortec
Basic tufting machines use hundreds
of needles to stitch rows of pile yarn
tufts through a backing fabric called
the primary backing. The needles push
yarn through the primary backing,
where a looper or hook holds the yarn
in place to form a tuft as the needle is
removed. Looper are ed to form
loop pile carpet while hooks and knives
are used to form cut-pile carpet. The
yarn construction, pile type and typeof secondary backing applied deter-
mine carpets appearance, resiliency
and propertie. undertanding how
carpet is constructed helps identify
which type of carpet works best in a
specic location. Due to the relatively
high output rates of tufting machines,
they produce approximately 95 per-
cent of all carpet manufactured.
The Cobble Difference
What makes Cobble machines differ-
ent from general tufting machines is
that they are actually specialized for
specic end use applications. When
Cobble decided to develop their new
generation of specialized machines
Seamlesstransition
Systemex:
Established:2002
Employees: 15
Locations:Ville St-Laurent (CN)
Products & Services: Engineering con-
sultant/integrator for automation
and robotics
www.systemex.ca
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is the ultimate in color pattern tuft-
ing technology, capable of producing
up to eight color carpets or rugs in
almot any pattern imaginable. com-
plex patterns and designs, previously
only achieved by weaving, are now
possible on a tufting machine. LCL is
a sophisticated method of combin-
ing cut and loop pile constructions in
the same fabric with a full patterning
capability. This produces a near level
pile effect through the use of a special
hook that can be selectively controlled
to act as either a hook or looper. FRS
is a sophisticated pattern attachment
which allows precise carpet designs to
be made by way of varying loop pile
heights for texturing or color pattern-
ing by threading of two colors of yarn
to produce a two color pattern.
The result of this technology: Cobble
machines were making their own com-
pletely unique style of carpet.
The solution - POWERLINK
During development of Cobbles new
generation tufting machines there
were several challenging areas which
needed signicant attention. Chris
OReilly, President of Piedmont Auto-
mation, explained that coordinating
and synchronizing a large distributeddigital I/O network of over 500 mod-
ules and up to 30 axes of motion
placed special demands on the control
system and the engineering team.
One EPL channel and ve X2X are
inherently synchronized which allows
greater exibility in controlling yarn
dynamics. Cobble also requested a
deep level of integration across their
range of pattern attachment and servo
ytem. B&R provided oltion in
each area from visualization, high per-
formance I/O networks, and innovative
valve manifold control to an advanced
motion platform. The 2005 cP382 wa
used as the primary controller, X20
and XV modules for I/O, ACOPOS
drive and B&R motor for motion
and an APC620 for visualization. Ac-
cording to Piedmont Automation, the
most distinctive features of this ma-
chine application were that visualiza-
tion and interface to third party designsystems was accomplished through
an XP Embedded application using
Microsofts .NET Framework. There
is a wide variety of machine combina-
tions and options that customers can
request of Cobble. The project team
decided early in the review process to
build one congurable project that is
exible enough to handle all potential
versions of machines.
The decentralized X2X backplane maintains a perfect connection between the
numerous XV I/Os on the machine.
Needle layout on Cobble Mini LCL
machines.
Cobble:
Established:1977
Employees: 75
Locations:Dalton, Blackburn.
Agents worldwide
Products & Services: Production, de-
veloptment and service of tufting
machines and auxiliaries
www.cobbleusa.com
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