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Galil Motion Control, Inc. · 800-377-6329 · www.galilmc.com
SMART MOVES SPOTLIGHTS
new high-speed hot-stamp print-
ing machine developed by
Design Sciences for custom let-
tering has increased the company's
throughput by more than 700 per cent.
Largely responsible for this increased
speed and precision is a Galil DMC-
1738 three-axis motion controller at
the heart of the machine.
The hot-stamp printer, which can
personalize names on up to 6 pens or
pencils simultaneously, has increased
throughput to 1800 pencils per hour
compared with 250 pencils per hour on
other current automated machines. The
$60,000 machine offers a payback time
of 6 months and allows 400 orders to
be filled per day with 24 pencils per
order. Many companies still use manu-
al personalization, which requires 12
people on three shifts.
During the process, temperature,
pressure, and time of contact of the
print head are critical. The Galil DMC-
1738 motion controller uses a three-
axis ISA bus controller with expanded
I/O. One axis controls the motion of
the letters, which are mounted on a
Design Sciences JetPrint 520 lettering
machine with the INTFX software control
system uses Galil's DMC-1738.
Galil Teams with Design Sciences to
Increase Output by Over 700%.
Galil's DMC-1738, with its multi-tasking capability,
provides precise control of character alignments
while simultaneously loading the next array of
personalization data.
high temperature
timing belt. The
second axis posi-
tions the lead
screw, which
moves the pencil
to the correct
position for
placement of the next letter. The third
axis aligns the letter vertically, provid-
ing perfect registration of the name on
the pencil.
The motion controller positions the
correct letter on the belt above the print
head at the precise spot demanded. The
print head is then lowered for a mea-
sured period of time (approximately 100
msec). The Galil controller measures the
time precisely to correctly transfer the
gold foil material to the substrate. By
assigning variable names in the Galil pro-
gram, the operator can change the
process variables "on-the-fly" .
For this application, the download
array capability of the DMC-1738 is
important. Here the print file for a
name is calculated and downloaded
ahead of the motion. The file contains
position data for the belt axis contain-
ing the letters, the pencil axis for place-
ment and the correction factor to align
the letter vertically.
Calculations for the next name are
processed while the current motion is
occurring. This multitasking increases the
throughput because one custom order
can be processed while another is being
loaded. Galil's multitasking feature is also
important here because the calculation
of data and motion are performed totally
independently of one another.
The 64 additional I/O contained
on the DMC-1738 as a standard fea-
ture eliminated the need for extra I/O
cards to be added. Because Visual Basic
is used as the operator interface, Galil's
Visual Basic tool kit also saved time
during development of the machine.
The JetPrint 520 allows 400 orders to be
filled per day with 24 pencils per order.
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