Control system supporting multiple full-automatic ink-jet printing machines

Abstract

The utility model discloses a control system supporting multiple full-automatic ink-jet printers, comprising ink-jet printers and a code scanning gun, the ink-jet printers are connected with a first hard gateway through a serial port cable, the code scanning gun is connected with a second hard gateway through a serial port cable, the first hard gateway, the second hard gateway and a PLC controller are connected through an industrial network cable, and the PLC controller is connected with the industrial network cable. The PLC is connected with the industrial personal computer through an industrial network cable, and the industrial personal computer is wirelessly connected with the cloud server; the production efficiency of enterprises is improved, the operation cost is saved, and the delivery time of products is shortened; the labor intensity of workers is reduced; the computer controller is used for combining the code spraying styles according to a certain rule, so that the error rate of manually inputting the sprayed codes is greatly reduced; centralized management of the ink-jet printer is realized, and an automatic mode that one person operates a plurality of ink-jet printers is realized; the production combination of the cloud MES terminal and the field production terminal is enhanced, and the system is more suitable for the demands of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The utility model relates to the technical field of automatic control, in particular to a control system supporting multiple full-automatic inkjet printers. Background Art

[0002] Technological innovation drives industry progress. The global inkjet printer market continues to expand, fueled by technological innovation. Over the past few years, the speed and quality of inkjet printers have significantly improved. The application of digital and intelligent technologies, such as cloud connectivity, automation, and remote monitoring, has accelerated the industry's development.

[0003] As the number of product orders and models produced by enterprises continues to increase, more and more product styles need to be coded. The traditional method is for workers to manually input the coding style according to the work order information. The traditional manual input of coding style can no longer keep up with the speed of orders.

[0004] Therefore, there is an urgent need for a control system that supports multiple fully automatic inkjet printers and can solve the above problems. Utility Model Content

[0005] The purpose of this utility model is to provide a control system that supports multiple fully automatic inkjet printers to solve the problems existing in the above-mentioned prior art.

[0006] To achieve the above purpose, the present invention provides the following solutions:

[0007] The utility model provides a control system that supports multiple fully automatic inkjet printers, including an inkjet printer and a barcode scanner. The inkjet printer is connected to a first hard gateway via a serial cable, and the barcode scanner is connected to a second hard gateway via a serial cable. The first hard gateway, the second hard gateway and a PLC controller are connected via an industrial network cable, the PLC controller is connected to an industrial computer via an industrial network cable, and the industrial computer is wirelessly connected to a cloud server.

[0008] Preferably, the inkjet printer is connected to the first hard gateway via RS485.

[0009] Preferably, the barcode scanner is connected to the second hard gateway via RS232.

[0010] Preferably, the first hard gateway, the second hard gateway and the PLC controller communicate via the ethercat protocol.

[0011] Preferably, the PLC controller communicates with the industrial computer via the Modbus Tcp protocol.

[0012] Preferably, the industrial computer is wirelessly connected to the cloud server via WIFI.

[0013] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has achieved the following beneficial technical effects:

[0014] 1. Improve the production efficiency of the enterprise, save operating costs, and speed up product delivery time;

[0015] 2. Reduce the labor intensity of workers;

[0016] 3. Use computer controller to combine coding patterns according to certain rules, which greatly reduces the error rate of input coding;

[0017] 4. It realizes the centralized management of inkjet printers and the automation mode of one person operating multiple inkjet printers;

[0018] 5. Strengthened the integration of cloud MES and on-site production, making it more suitable for the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

[0020] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the connection relationship of the control system supporting multiple fully automatic inkjet printers provided by the utility model;

[0021] Figure 2 The utility model provides an interactive flow chart of the control system that supports multiple fully automatic inkjet printers. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the embodiments described are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0023] The purpose of the utility model is to provide a control system that supports multiple fully automatic inkjet printers to solve the problems existing in the prior art.

[0024] In order to make the above-mentioned objects, features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and easy to understand, the present invention is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific implementation methods.

[0025] Example 1:

[0026] This embodiment provides a control system that supports multiple fully automatic inkjet printers, such as Figure 1 As shown, it includes an inkjet printer 1 and a barcode scanner 2. The inkjet printer 1 is connected to a first hard gateway 3 through a serial cable, and the barcode scanner 2 is connected to a second hard gateway 4 through a serial cable. The first hard gateway 3, the second hard gateway 4 and the PLC controller 5 are connected through an industrial network cable. The PLC controller 5 is connected to an industrial computer 6 through an industrial network cable, and the industrial computer 6 is wirelessly connected to a cloud server 7.

[0027] As an implementation method, the inkjet printer 1 is connected to the first hard gateway 3 via RS485.

[0028] As an implementation method, the barcode scanner 2 is connected to the second hard gateway 4 via RS232.

[0029] As an implementation manner, the first hard gateway 3 , the second hard gateway 4 and the PLC controller 5 communicate via the ethercat protocol.

[0030] As an implementation method, the PLC controller 5 communicates with the industrial computer 6 via the Modbus Tcp protocol.

[0031] As an implementation method, the industrial computer 6 is wirelessly connected to the cloud server 7 via WIFI.

[0032] The utility model provides a control system that supports multiple fully automatic inkjet printers and focuses on "injection coding information processing". From the numerical information of the QR code to the inkjet coding style that complies with the rules, the entire control system implementation method can be divided into five stages, namely information collection, information transmission, information decoding, information fusion and information output. Among them, information collection and information output are completed by the PLC controller; information transmission and information fusion are completed by the PC end, and information decoding is completed by the MES end.

[0033] The workflow is as follows:

[0034] like Figure 2 As shown, the inkjet printer business mainly focuses on checking the content of data link transmission and the current operating status of each end. From scanning to inkjet printing, it is a cyclic process. If there are any exceptions in the process, they can be handled and return to the normal practical process.

[0035] Link 1 - Scan code and transmit normally

[0036] Scan the QR code of the production order. If the scan is successful, the scan result will be transmitted to the PLC controller, and the PLC controller will map the result information to the Modbus bus register. The main information includes the printer number and production order number;

[0037] The PLC controller and the PC establish a Modbustcp handshake protocol for information transmission between the printer number and the production order number;

[0038] After the PC obtains the data, it will be formatted and transmitted to the cloud MES. If there is an abnormality on the MES side, the error code will be transmitted to the PC side to display the abnormality and automatically eliminate the abnormality without manual elimination.

[0039] Link 2 - Scan code exception handling process

[0040] After the barcode scanner scans the code, if an exception occurs (such as missing code), the exception code and scanning result will be transmitted to the PLC controller. The PLC controller will transmit the exception code to the PC. The PC will display the exception and automatically eliminate the exception.

[0041] Link 3 - Normal transmission process of inkjet printing

[0042] The MES side transmits the elements of the coding pattern to the PC side. The PC side maps and combines the coding patterns according to certain coding rules (enterprise-defined rules). The PC side can display the coding pattern of each printer and transmit the coding pattern to the PLC controller, and then to the printer to complete a normal printing process.

[0043] Link 4 - Printing abnormality handling process

[0044] When the inkjet printer encounters various faults during use, the fault codes of various types of inkjet printers shall be used as the basis. Timely display of faults and manual elimination of faults can improve the efficiency of the inkjet printer.

[0045] If the printer encounters communication or operation abnormalities (such as lack of ink), it will return the abnormal code to the PLC controller, which will then transmit the abnormal code to the PC, display and analyze the abnormal code, and manually eliminate the abnormality.

[0046] 1. Interaction between inkjet printer and PLC controller

[0047] The specific steps are as follows:

[0048] 1. Use the specified communication cable to connect the host and inkjet printer, and set the communication parameters;

[0049] 2. Set the communication setting conditions of the inkjet printer, which mainly include settings such as text thickness and color;

[0050] 3. Send the protocol specified by the device, instruct the corresponding data, and finally enter the printing state;

[0051] (1) Serial communication settings

[0052] This project uses a continuous inkjet printer equipped with RS-232C communication, allowing data input and various settings to be controlled via the touchscreen. Typically, a 9-pin serial cable is required for communication. It supports both manual input and code scanning, and printers from all manufacturers support basic communication protocol commands.

[0053] Before communication, basic communication parameter settings must be performed. Operation settings can be performed through the local operation keyboard of the inkjet printer, or changes can be made by sending communication commands through the PLC. The specific details are as follows: Click the (Set) button in the main menu screen. The setting parameters are as follows:

[0054]

[0055] (2) Printing condition setting

[0056] The printing conditions are as follows:

[0057]

[0058] PLC needs to send the above instructions to complete the interaction with the inkjet printer and finally successfully enter the printing state; 2. PLC controller and PC terminal interaction design

[0059] The PLC controller used is Inovance PLC. The PLC controller and the host computer use the Modbus TCP method. The PLC controller acts as a slave and the host computer acts as a master. The host computer actively reads the data in the PLC controller's internal registers, converts the data into JSON format, sends it to the MES end through HTTP requests, obtains the parsing results, and then writes the parsing results into the PLC controller's internal registers.

[0060] (1) Business data format and capacity design

[0061] Among them, all collected business data of the Inovance PLC controller is stored in the MB area of ​​the register. The internal register address of the PLC controller is 16 bits, with an address range of 0 to 65536. The data type of the register does not have the Bool type, but is byte data (0 to 255).

[0062] Taking the QR code scanning result workOrderId87204 as an example, it occupies 31 bytes. The QR code scanning result format is as follows:

[0063] "workOrderId" + "87204*****......", the specific format is 11 fixed bytes + 20 fixed bytes;

[0064] The maximum number of bits returned by MES is 50 bytes;

[0065] (3) Design of process marking position of inkjet printer

[0066] In order to ensure that the inkjet printers operate independently and do not affect each other when working at the same time, the process flag of each inkjet printer is designed independently; because the inkjet printer's coding style reply information is relatively slow, the PLC controller calculation time needs to wait for the reply, so the process flag is needed to control the loop process.

[0067] The flags of inkjet printer 1 are as follows:

[0068]

[0069] The inkjet printer 2 flag is as follows:

[0070]

[0071] The inkjet printer 3 flags are as follows:

[0072]

[0073] The inkjet printer 4 flags are as follows:

[0074]

[0075]

[0076] The inkjet printer 5 flags are as follows:

[0077]

[0078] The inkjet printer 6 flags are as follows:

[0079]

[0080] The 4000|4001|4002 of a printer is used as the reserved flag address to facilitate read and write control. The main process is as follows: the flag for reading the scanner is 4000, the flag for writing the inkjet pattern is 4001, and the flag for reading the printer communication fault is 4002.

[0081] Establish a handshake protocol at address 4000 - read the barcode scanner

[0082] The address value is initialized to 0x00. After the code is scanned, the PLC controller writes the value (value and flag bit). If the PC judges it is 0x01, it takes the value away and writes the value of address 4000 to 0xFF (completing this cycle).

[0083] The PLC controller determines that the address value is 0xFF, indicating that the PC has already taken the value, and then writes the latest data to the address, and writes the flag bit to 0x01; and clears the content (in order to prevent the PLC controller from accidentally spraying the code next time, the PLC controller determines that the content is empty and does not spray the code)

[0084] The loop operation is analogous to this;

[0085] Establish a handshake protocol on the 4001 address - write to the printer

[0086] The address value is initialized to 0x00. After the MES analysis is completed, the PC writes the value (value and flag bit). The PLC controller determines that it is 0x01, takes the value away, and writes the value of address 4001 to 0xFF (completing this cycle);

[0087] The PC determines that the address value is 0xFF, indicating that the PLC controller has taken away the data and starts writing the value again;

[0088] The loop operation is analogous to this;

[0089] Establish handshake protocol at address 4002 - Read printer communication failure

[0090] The address value is initialized to 0x00. When the inkjet printer has a communication failure, the PLC controller writes the value (value and flag bit). The PC judges it as 0x01, then takes the value away and writes the value of address 4002 to 0xFF (completing this cycle).

[0091] The PLC controller determines that the address value is 0xFF, indicating that the PC has taken the value, and then writes the latest data to the address and writes the flag bit to 0x01;

[0092] The loop operation is analogous to this;

[0093] (4) Read and write PLC register design

[0094] Read Register—Get the encoded value from the PLC controller

[0095] The maximum number of characters occupied by the code value read by scanning the code is 61 words, and the number of the code is 1 word. Therefore, reading the PLC save register occupies 62 words.

[0096] 1. Read the PLC controller holding register address as follows:

[0097]

[0098]

[0099] Write register - write MES analysis results to the PLC controller

[0100] The PLC controller's barcode scanner address has redundancy, and the register write start address starts at 1000. The MES parsing result occupies a maximum of 50 words. Considering that the parsing result may be abnormal, it actually occupies 100 address spaces of the PLC controller.

[0101] 1. Write the PLC controller holding register address and address content as follows:

[0102]

[0103]

[0104] (5) Design of inkjet printer communication fault error coding table

[0105] When a communication fault occurs on the printer, the PLC controller transmits a 4-byte fault code to the PC. The PC displays the fault code on the interface according to the fault string mapping table of the printer. You can click a button to manually eliminate the communication fault of the printer and the printer will return to normal state.

[0106] 1. Read the PLC controller holding register address and address content as follows:

[0107]

[0108] The mapping table of printer fault strings is as follows:

[0109]

[0110] 3. HTTP interaction between PC and MES

[0111] The design is carried out by taking six inkjet printers as an example. Considering that the inkjet printers are running at the same time, the interface protocol from the PC to the MES is defined centrally.

[0112] (1) The PC transmits the scanned value to the MES

[0113] Business description: HTTP request sends the production order number of the inkjet printer to the MES end;

[0114] Request URL: / api-admin / other / getMachineName

[0115] Request method: POST request

[0116] Request parameters: None, {}

[0117] The format of the request data sent by the PC is as follows. The number of inkjet printers can be increased or decreased.

[0118]

[0119]

[0120] (2) The MES terminal transmits the scan results to the PC terminal

[0121] Obtain the production order number, tag definition, and other parsing result information from the MES side; the PC side receives the reply data in the following format:

[0122]

[0123]

[0124] This utility model uses specific examples to illustrate the principles and implementation methods of this utility model. The above examples are only used to help understand the method and core concept of this utility model. At the same time, for those skilled in the art, according to the concept of this utility model, there may be changes in the specific implementation methods and application scope. In summary, the content of this specification should not be understood as limiting the utility model.

Claims

1. A control system that supports multiple fully automatic inkjet printers, including inkjet printers and barcode scanners, characterized by: The inkjet printer is connected to the first hard gateway via a serial cable, the barcode scanner is connected to the second hard gateway via a serial cable, the first hard gateway, the second hard gateway and the PLC controller are connected via an industrial network cable, the PLC controller is connected to the industrial computer via an industrial network cable, and the industrial computer is wirelessly connected to the cloud server.

2. The control system supporting multiple fully automatic inkjet printers according to claim 1, characterized in that: The inkjet printer is connected to the first hard gateway via RS485.

3. The control system supporting multiple fully automatic inkjet printers according to claim 1, characterized in that: The barcode scanner is connected to the second hard gateway via RS232.

4. The control system supporting multiple fully automatic inkjet printers according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first hard gateway, the second hard gateway and the PLC controller communicate via the ethercat protocol.

5. The control system supporting multiple fully automatic inkjet printers according to claim 1, characterized in that: The PLC controller communicates with the industrial computer via the Modbus TCP protocol.

6. The control system supporting multiple fully automatic inkjet printers according to claim 1, characterized in that: The industrial computer is wirelessly connected to the cloud server via WIFI.

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