U.S. Chemical and Plastics is known throughout the automotive and marine industries for its body repair and refinishing products. USC resins, putties, sealers, fillers, cleansers and other compounds are used primarily by professionals, but a wide array of the company’s products are used by do-it-yourself auto and boat enthusiasts as well. In every case, the products come in containers that must be filled, quart and gallon cans, drums, and 24 oz. tubes.

At its headquarters and main plant in Massillon, Ohio, USC had been filling its containers using an auger pump and AC motor, which started and stopped by timed I/O switching from a PLC. The containers were overfilled and manually weighed for accuracy, as USC’s policy is to never provide customers with less product than stated on the label.

Two operators were required at each filling station for this process, in part to manually top off containers and clean spilled product, since filling accuracy was often off by five percent. In an attempt at better control, a motor-mounted brake was added to one of its more difficult stations, but USC was still unsatisfied with its metered pump control. USC decided to consult its automation and electronic controls distributor and system integrator, which recommended a “Motion Made Easy” solution—true vector motor positioning control.

The SM-EZMotion module brings “Motion Made Easy” to the Unidrive SP “Solutions Platform.” Because the Unidrive SP is a universal AC/Servo drive, mounting an SM-EZMotion module inside the drive allows the “Motion Made Easy” PowerTools Pro software to control both servomotors and vector motors, in closed-loop mode.

This “Motion Made Easy” solution enables machine builders to use one drive system and software program to build machines using servomotors, closed-loop vector motors, or both. Vector motors are particularly cost effective on axes with high inertia loads and higher horsepower requirements, costing much less than brushless servomotors. Using a closed-loop vector motor in an application can also remove an expensive gearbox and reduce susceptibility to load disturbances.