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Application

rosive gas, uids and water that can

affect the components of the system.

The B&R solution offers easy opera-

tor installation and complies with the

Nema 4X regulations (IP67).

The results

Systemex, Rotalec and B&R de-signed, installed and tested the El-

cotech automation system in only a

few weeks. The time to market was

critical for Elcotech and the B&R solu-

tion met this criterion and exceeded

Elcotechs expectations. Given how

important it is for leaders in electro-

dewatering to protect their intellec-

tual property, Elcotech can now sell

their machines worldwide without

any concerns.

Cobble/Tufting Machine Co, Inc., USA, a wholly owned subsidiary of

Spencer Wright Industries, Inc., is at the forefront of tufting machinery

technology worldwide. Cobble manufactures specialized multi-needle

sewing machines to create textiles, in particular carpet.

they knew they needed a partner who

could supply them with the products

necessary to meet their very critical

applications. Their previous platform

had become outdated and superseded

by newer technologies. They wanted

a relationhip with a oltion pro-

vider that offered both hardware and

software capabilities for the long term.

In the end it was B&Rs product range

depth and B&R usA partner PiedmontAutomations interaction which gave

Cobble the condence to choose

B&Rs solution.

The B&R product range Cobble is

currently using covers all of their ma-

chine types which require servo and

patterning I/O point. cobble refer

to these machines as pattern attach-

ment machines that include Colortec,

LCL (Level Cut Loop), FRS (Full Repeat

Scroll) and any other machine type

reqiring ervo motor and/or pat-

terning control. When Cobble began

development with B&R and Piedmont

none of their competitors were able

to offer these machine types. Colortec

Basic tufting machines use hundreds

of needles to stitch rows of pile yarn

tufts through a backing fabric called

the primary backing. The needles push

yarn through the primary backing,

where a looper or hook holds the yarn

in place to form a tuft as the needle is

removed. Looper are ed to form

loop pile carpet while hooks and knives

are used to form cut-pile carpet. The

yarn construction, pile type and typeof secondary backing applied deter-

mine carpets appearance, resiliency

and propertie. undertanding how

carpet is constructed helps identify

which type of carpet works best in a

specic location. Due to the relatively

high output rates of tufting machines,

they produce approximately 95 per-

cent of all carpet manufactured.

The Cobble Difference

What makes Cobble machines differ-

ent from general tufting machines is

that they are actually specialized for

specic end use applications. When

Cobble decided to develop their new

generation of specialized machines

Seamlesstransition

Systemex:

Established:2002

Employees: 15

Locations:Ville St-Laurent (CN)

Products & Services: Engineering con-

sultant/integrator for automation

and robotics

www.systemex.ca

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is the ultimate in color pattern tuft-

ing technology, capable of producing

up to eight color carpets or rugs in

almot any pattern imaginable. com-

plex patterns and designs, previously

only achieved by weaving, are now

possible on a tufting machine. LCL is

a sophisticated method of combin-

ing cut and loop pile constructions in

the same fabric with a full patterning

capability. This produces a near level

pile effect through the use of a special

hook that can be selectively controlled

to act as either a hook or looper. FRS

is a sophisticated pattern attachment

which allows precise carpet designs to

be made by way of varying loop pile

heights for texturing or color pattern-

ing by threading of two colors of yarn

to produce a two color pattern.

The result of this technology: Cobble

machines were making their own com-

pletely unique style of carpet.

The solution - POWERLINK

During development of Cobbles new

generation tufting machines there

were several challenging areas which

needed signicant attention. Chris

OReilly, President of Piedmont Auto-

mation, explained that coordinating

and synchronizing a large distributeddigital I/O network of over 500 mod-

ules and up to 30 axes of motion

placed special demands on the control

system and the engineering team.

One EPL channel and ve X2X are

inherently synchronized which allows

greater exibility in controlling yarn

dynamics. Cobble also requested a

deep level of integration across their

range of pattern attachment and servo

ytem. B&R provided oltion in

each area from visualization, high per-

formance I/O networks, and innovative

valve manifold control to an advanced

motion platform. The 2005 cP382 wa

used as the primary controller, X20

and XV modules for I/O, ACOPOS

drive and B&R motor for motion

and an APC620 for visualization. Ac-

cording to Piedmont Automation, the

most distinctive features of this ma-

chine application were that visualiza-

tion and interface to third party designsystems was accomplished through

an XP Embedded application using

Microsofts .NET Framework. There

is a wide variety of machine combina-

tions and options that customers can

request of Cobble. The project team

decided early in the review process to

build one congurable project that is

exible enough to handle all potential

versions of machines.

The decentralized X2X backplane maintains a perfect connection between the

numerous XV I/Os on the machine.

Needle layout on Cobble Mini LCL

machines.

Cobble:

Established:1977

Employees: 75

Locations:Dalton, Blackburn.

Agents worldwide

Products & Services: Production, de-

veloptment and service of tufting

machines and auxiliaries

www.cobbleusa.com

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