Production Line Monitoring
This project aimed to solve the logistical issues surrounding manufacturing and ordering supplies. The data logger is used to determine the throughput of Motsumi Darts when manufacturing various types of darts. It can be used to monitor peak production hours and power consumption of the building as well.
Developed for Dr. David Pretorius (Motsumi Darts)
Project Details / Background
Knowing when to order new material is one of the ways to streamline a production process. The communication lines between the warehouse and the office may not always be the most effecient way to monitor material use. As such a small level of automation is implemented to log these changes. An ESP32 is used for its WiFi capabilities. During the first iteration of this project the data was simply logged into a public google sheets document using Googles API.
A Google sheet is not an effiecient way of monitoring data in the long run. An online server, running a MySQL database was set up to register the data logs and display the relevant data in an intuitive way. The entire system was overhauled to accomodate the added functionality and security. Every ESP32 is added through their MAC address and manually authorized to make data entries. Without this authorization their logs are thrown out. The database allows for easy updating of box parameters. Since every box is used on a different machine with different operators their parameters will vary. This method allows items to be added and removed without the need for reprogramming.
Each data logging box has the same functionality but is used on its own device. 2 boxes are used on swage presses where the the needle is seated into the head of the dart. One box is used in a swage press where the heads of the darts are attached to the cylindrical bodies. Finally another box is used on the tail crimping machine, where every single dart will need to go through. Each of these machines are air operated and require some other method of registering data entries.
Image Gallery
Box housing microcontrolelr. Allows changing the dart type, and logging a rejected dart.
Limit switch used to trigger a full rotation on the swage press.
Example of box currently logging a dart being swaged.