Custom and StandardReciprocating Placers

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Talking with many customers it has become very apparent that there is a large misunderstanding about reciprocating placers. On most reciprocating placers the motion at the placer head is provided by a shaft that turns back and forth anywhere from 90 degrees to 180 degrees. This motion is normally either provided by a pneumatic cylinder or an electric motor. The confusion is between the pneumatically driven placer and variable speed motor driven placer. I want to make clear the differences

There are many significant differences between these two type placers.

A. The biggest difference is price. The pneumatic placer that Westlund Engineering builds is $4,800.00. The variable speed motor driven placer is $8,500.00.

B. The speed of pneumatic placers are quite different and it depends on the product being placed. We have run pneumatic placers at 60 cycles per minute but 40 cycles per minute is more realistic. A variable speed motor driven reciprocating placer will run at 90 cycles per minute starting and stopping each cycle.

C. The air cylinder that drives a pneumatic placer builds up pressure in the cylinder until it can pull the product out of the magazine then runs to an abrupt stop as the product is being placed. This is a very violent motion. Starts with a bang and stops with a bang. The motion on a motor driven placer is very smooth. Due to geometry, the motion of the placer head is slower when it removes the product from the magazine, speeds up through the middle of the movement and slows down again when placing the product. This is a standard motion of a piston in an automotive engine

D. The pneumatic placer stops at each end of the air cylinder. The motor driven placer is very smooth and can be stopped in different positions. The advantage of this is that the placing head (vacuum cups) can contact the product being removed from the magazine and pull it out slightly before coming to a stop. This helps tremendously in separating the products being placed. The stopping position and placer speed can be adjusted on the fly through the operator interface on the motor driven placer.

E. The controls for pneumatic placers are usually from an external solenoid valve signaled from another machine or from a timer relay we build into the placer. The controls for a motor driven placer are from a PLC with an operator interface inside the placer. The placer is built with variable speed AC or DC motors and controllers. The PLC provides for easily adjustable timer triggers, inspection, stopping positions and production data on the read outs of the machine.

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