Any industrial automation nerds on here? My soda can crusher build!

This was a project that I started to gather parts for last fall as a way of getting more hands-on experience with my degree in controls and automation. Well I didnt end up getting to put anything together until last week. Its an industrial grade soda can crusher controlled by a PLC. Built out of 70% recycled/used components, including the steel frame, control panel box, most of the electronics, the big pneumatic cylinder, air regulator, and even some of the wire.

I built/wired the panel last fall. The box itself came off an old stretch wrap machine I found at the junkyard. All the electronics except the buttons/switches and the terminal blocks were sourced on ebay/scrap yards etc.
Before:


After:


After I got that far I decided to take a break from spending money and sit back and learn how the PLC I bought functions. Its an Allen-Bradley Micro820 and it uses the free Connected Components Workbench software. For anyone in the know, you know this software is free for a reason. It sucks. Atleast compared to the RS500 and Studio 5000 put out by A&B for their bigger PLC's. It took some time to learn but I got it mostly figured out.

Anyways, last week I got sick of looking at all the parts I had gathered, and with nothing better to do with my time outside of work cause of the 'Rona, I decided to rummage through my scrap pile and put something together to crush some soda cans.

Fired up my scratch-start Tig welding rig and went to work.


A mock up of what I was planning by using a hopper I had made last fall for a completely different feed setup. I switched from a side mounted hopper to a top mount just so nothing is hanging off that may potentially break.


After I got that far I needed to build a feed hopper that reliably positioned the can sideways in the crush tray. That proved very annoying. I spent the better part of a day testing different designs before I arrived at something that worked.


Now that I had the basic functionality down it was time to automate it. I ran air lines from my regulator to a splitter then into each solenoid and out to the two pneumatic cylinders. (The second solenoid is behind the left hand steel plate).


Then came wiring the solenoids and limit switches into the panel. I was originally gonna just hard wire everything straight to the box, but for the sake of easy transportation this wouldve been stupid. So after some digging online I found the answer to my issue. The Ziplink from Automation Direct. Simply wire the field I/O to the terminal blocks and it slims it all down into one cable+connector that can be unplugged from the board.


On the other end its as simple as tracing out what's what and wiring things where they need to go.


So once all of that was accomplished it was time to open up the CCW software for the first time in 8 months, relearn it , and toss a program into this thing. It took the better half of the day, but I got it to work exactly how I wanted it to. 2 modes, manual and automatic. One keeps crushing as long as you feed cans into it, and the other allows you to walk it through the process one step at a time, as fast or slow as you like.


All thats left is to tear it down and shoot some paint on it. I will update this post once thats done.

 

Bad ass!

 

Awesome build, OP.

 

Quite the nice build!! Put's my old mechanical one to shame.

 

Pretty rad!

I used to do automation maintenance at Amazon before I left for my current job. I've wanted to do a little project and build something.

 

Good Job !! Any plans in the works for a bigger hopper ?

No idea if this was a fun project or you have years of cans to crush.

 

Thats dope man. You could build some sort of vibratory feeder that aligns and feed cans into the current magazine if you want to bump the capacity way up.

Are you running a prox switch in the 'crush chamber' to verify a can is seated before crushing?

Also, I would consider adding a bonding jumper between the enclosure door stud and the backpanel (just like shown in the first picture) just in case.

 

ahahaha that is so over complicated and unnecessary I love it

Can you suggest a good beginner PLC course, online or otherwise? I work around the stuff all day on ships, but the tech-reps are always called in if there is a problem so I don't get much hands-on. I need to learn something new and keep up with the tech. Thanks

 

Only plans for expansion is to rig up an analog module to another PLC to monitor the incoming air pressure. Honestly I dont have a lot of cans. Actually ran out during testing haha.

Oh yeah I just ran out of green wire for a jumper. And theres a capacitive prox sensor on the side to sense the aluminum cans.

Automation direct has a pretty good online free course. You can get a small PLC for around $100 from them. Or you can pick up a Micro800 series Allen Bradley off ebay and the software is free.

Or, and this is probably the best option is to find an A&B Micrologix 1100 series B off ebay. Then download the free RSLogix 500 Micro Lite. Its the same software that the common SLC500 uses just slimmed down a bit and free to use with the 1100 series PLC's. If you can get good at that software you can get a job pretty much anywhere that has A&B plc's.

 

For all my can crushing (no beer, no sodas) it's size 10E. Wifey gets pissed when I stomp one without warning, it can be loud.

Is there any force required sensing in case a full can gets in the hopper? That would make somewhat of a mess if it crushed and blew contents all over the place.

 

No sensing like that as it wouldve put it more over budget than it already was.

I doubt that the air cylinder that kicks the cans from the hopper to the crush tray would have enough power to move a full one though. Its a tiny guy running off just 55 psi thats slowed down through a needle valve.

 

Very cool.
I love working with controls as well. I need to get back into that aspect of the electrical trade...

Good luck with your studies.

 

I'm impressed. Makes my CNC table pale by comparison.

 

Neet.

Made my second of four fortunes in the biz.

Process/motor control design/build, good part of that in the petroleum industry. Many bouts of "crimper's cramp".

 

Finally got around to tearing it down and shooting some paint on it. Also added one of the decals @BartMaster1234 sent me, along with making everything neat with some zip ties.





And Ive begun acquiring parts for my next project. Unsure if I'll go full ham and build another mini machine or just build a trainer setup. Gonna try and tackle a PID control system using an air pressure transmitter and an analog card paired with an Allen Bradley Micrologix 1100 PLC. More on that later...

 

Those are legit decals for real automation equipment haha, it has an Agilent part number on it.

 

Nice Job, OP!

 

I like some of your ideas like the open area for the can drop.

I am going to build a can crusher without the automation part.

 

The first test.