The Hole Correction Feature adjusts Shear Targets based on the detection of a hole within a tolerance range of the expected shear location.

This feature worked for the most part but in Feed to Stop configurations there are certain parts that have been discovered to cause Missed Shear or Missed Press Target Errors.

On a feed to stop controller, the controller moves to the target that is closest. The software was correctly adjusting the shear target but it did not account for the fact that the shear target may now be closer or another press target may now be closer. If the adjustment was far enough the controller would later detect and out of tolerance or missed target condition and report an error.

The Hole Correction feature was added for Feed to Stop to the Models listed below. Some of these controllers do not have a Feed to Stop shear but they already support Hole Correction in Flying Cut so they are still listed here.

XL200CL XL202CL XL206CL XL212CL XL244CL XL200MDA2 XL200SPD

Allow the Stitching Feature on the XL200 OL and CL. Since an XL200 has no gag outputs, short parts are stitched together by leaving out shear operations. The parts must be separated by cutting them down by hand in post operations.

On Feed to Stop applications, while Stitching parts, this change allows the Shear press operation to be selectively omitted without stopping at the shear target. It does this while still accurately tracking material and part completion for the parts that have the omitted press fires.

Internally, tracking part completion without stopping and without firing the shear press has been described as a Phantom Shear.

Some feed to stop machines don't have a physical shear tool. A future, generic implementation of a phantom shear for those machines will be able to make use of this same mechanism that has been implemented for Stitching.

This feature is not currently compatible with the SGF option. We have a customer waiting for this for a Brake and Hump line. There are too many concerns with the target adjustments for the Weld Station and the Weld Knockoff station to consider right now.

SCN 3575 was a change to leave the lag active during die return. Turning the lag off was causing a motor jump.

Having the lag off makes the die return smoother at the expense of a motor jump as the die comes to a stop at the end of travel.

The lag calculations rely on a filter for the command velocity. That filter adds a phase shift in the calculated command velocity. Suddenly removing the lag portion of the analog, which relies on the command velocity filter, results in an abrupt change in analog voltage or velocity command for SERCOS.

SAMCO complained about this, the only solution was to leave the lag active all the time.

This same phase shift is also responsible for the knee "velocity overshoot" that can be seen in the closed loop data screen. The phase shift results in the die position being behind because we are under correcting for the die velocity due to the phase shift. The overshoot is the die having to catch up to the target as the phase shifted velocity catches up to the actual velocity. This phase shift causes a knee or velocity overshoot at each trapezoid transition in the set point motion profile.

SAMCO is now complaining about vibration that can be seen at the transition points when the die stops at end of travel and at home. This new parameter allows them to turn off the lag during the die return, which will make the transitions smoother, returning the motion profile to what they are used to.

The harsh transitions are more impactful on them because they are using belt drives that stretch, which results in vibration.

SCN 3577 corrected a bug with hard coded filter constants that were incorrect when SERCOS was being used. The constants should be calculated based on the cutoff frequency and the sample time. The sample time goes from 1ms to 2ms when SERCOS is used so the constants needed to change for SERCOS.

SAMCO has a belt drive system that they were able to tune with V4.48.00 and not able to tune in v4.49.00 which is where is bug was fixed. After experimenting with their settings we realized that they found settings on the old software that were a balance between accuracy, smoothness, die stroke and the drive overheating. If we provide them a method to use the old hard coded filter constants, we expect they will be able to use the latest software successfully.

A new setup called Lag Command Velocity Filter has been added. Its default value is 35.6Hz. If SAMCO uses 17.8Hz when using SERCOS they will be back to the filter constant values that were hard coded. If they are using analog they should use the default values

When using SERCOS with a Die Accelerator there was a negative blip in the command profile at the start of the acceleration ramp. This blip did not exist when using analog.

The challenge for SERCOS is the motor encoder feedback is one sample old and the new command takes effect one sample delayed. The calculations attempting to account for this had a bug in them. They were attempting to make adjustments to the set-point ramp and when the ramp started.

The Set-Point ramp is now identical between SERCOS and analog. All adjustments for the old feedback and delayed command are now made in the loop. The error calculations in the loop are all made against the old Set-point which is also one sample old. The Lag Integral calculations that are removing the error will push the actual die position out ahead by one sample so that the actual die position will begin to match the new set-point by the time it becomes active and the die should be matching speed and position.

The only remaining customization in the set-point calculations for SERCOS is the tolerance test. Since we only know where the die was one sample time ago, the tolerance is compared with where the material was one sample time ago.

A request was made to add a PLC handshake for stopping shear operations. This will allow a PLC to control the production rate of the line. The PLC must give permission for every shear while in the Run Mode (Automatic). Full documentation on how the Handshaking works is documented in the MODBUS spec.

When waiting for the OK to Shear from the PLC the controller will display "STANDBY" in the run status.