Next please: Filling cartridges in a matter of seconds
Timing is everything: from sliding the cross into the goal to pressing the trigger – and filling ink cartridges. A cartridge is only available for filling for half a second. This calls for a pump with quick reactions and precision.
Hitting the spot is half the solution
A builder of special machines in Winterbach, around 30 kilometres to the east of Stuttgart, has designed a metering system for filling ink cartridges. Its metering pump has to work in synch with the machine cycle. A sensor in the system recognises when a cartridge is approaching the filling needle, and triggers the metering stroke.tunnel. Then the metering pump has a tenth of a second to draw in the ink, then half a second to fill the cartridge with the robot-controlled filling needle. If the pump misses the allotted time slot, the ink ends up next to the cartridge and there is a risk of operational faults and quality issues. So the machine builder needed a pump with quick reactions and precision. He also wanted to be able to change the metering volume because the system works with different cartridge types.
Key figures
- Filling ink cartridges in synch with the machine
- 100 cartridges a minute, 0.5 s per cartridge
- Changing metering quantities
- Solenoid Driven Metering Pump delta®
- Reliable, precise and drip-free filling
More precision, more flexibility, more safety
These kinds of filling systems often use stainless steel plunger pump units, but they are relatively inflexible, complex and expensive to run. So the Winterbach-based firm opted for a Solenoid Driven Metering Pump delta® from ProMinent. The great thing about this durable pump is the regulated solenoid drive optoDrive®, which gives it its incredibly high precision and its flexibility. The discharge speed and metering volumes can therefore be set to between 0.2 and 4 ml, and individual drops can also be metered. The integrated monitoring system optoGuard®, which reports air in the metering head and other error statuses, ensures reliable operation. The result is precise and reliable filling, which is so clean that not one single drop has to be cleaned up afterwards.
Clean, safe and lightning-fast
- Reliable filling of cartridges of different sizes
- Smooth, fully automatic filling
- Reliable metering delivers high product quality
- Safe operations thanks to automatic error messages
- Low-wear pump with long service life ensures an economical system