Development of PLC-based automated packaging control system via Grafcet

The usage of packaging medium is a norm in the small and medium industries (SMI) in Malaysia, especially in the canned food industry. This is due to the fact that canned products are easier to transport and does not leak as easy as other medium used in the market. However, canned products are not free from problems. One of the common problems faced by companies with canned product is the slow packaging speed to fit the canned product in the cardboard box for transportation. In line with that, this project will be focusing on improvising the packaging system used in the manufacturing industry by designing a faster and more reliable automated packaging system. In detail, the project would be on improvising a system in packaging a batch of 24 canned food into a cardboard box for SMI production system. The system will be fully automatic and will be controlled using industrial controller, in this case a programmable logic controller (PLC). This project will be focusing on Grafcet programming method to develop the programming sequences for the actuators in the packaging system under study. At this phase of work, Grafcet method is shown to be a more simpler way to program a PLC as compared to other traditional programming method, namely flowchart.