Loading is the process of attaching materials to a carrier, and also the first operation in a production route.
To perform a loading operation on a station, that station must be configured as a loading station. This will make a special set of terminal commands available on that station. Commands for fault registration are not available on a loading station.
The station must also be part of the station group for the loading operation in the production route.
A placeholder loading operation is started when an empty carrier enters work position on a loading station. This is then replaced with the actual loading operation when the operator scans or enters the order number.
Selecting the Order Line
Barcode Scanner
Using a barcode scanner connected to the terminal is a very common option. This way the operator can start loading a new order line by scanning a barcode. The built in support for barcodes require that the barcode contains the complete terminal command to load a product, including a letter indicating the function key.
Say that we want a barcode that loads order 1, orderline 2 when scanned. The content of the barcode should in this case be 1.2F.
The last letter of the barcode indicates the function key, and all loading commands are on the F6 key.
F1 = A, F2 = B, F3 = C, F4 = D, F5 = E, F6 = F, F7 = G, F8 = H
Manual Terminal Entry
There is also the option to manually enter order line on the terminal via one of the loading commands. This can of course be used as a backup for the barcode scanner.
Custom Integration
When order selection must be done in an external system, or if for some reason it is impractical to use the normal methods, there is the possibility to develop other ways to load products.
This is also the case when there are barcodes that do not follow the standard format, but can still be used to indirectly look up an order line.
If you require development of a custom integration, please contact the Eton Systems support.
Keep Last Loading
If the station is configured to use last loading command, the carrier is automatically loaded the same way as the previous carrier. This will continue until the full quantity of the order line has been reached.
If multiple products are loaded every time, keep last loading will also remember this. The loaded quantity will still be capped at the full quantity of the order line, so the final carrier may have to carry a different amount which the operator should be aware of.
Example
Order line 1.1 has a quantity of 10 pieces, the operator loads 4 products into every carrier and keep last loading is enabled on the station.
1st carrier - Operator scans or uses the appropriate loading command to load the carrier with 4 pieces.
2nd carrier - The carrier is automatically loaded with the same, 4 pieces.
3rd carrier - The carrier is automatically loaded with 2 pieces, since 4 pieces would take it over the quantity.
Last loading command will be cleared when the operator logs out.
Re-Loading a carrier
If a carrier that has already been loaded enters the loading station again, then the system does not automatically start a loading operation or use the "keep last loading" feature.
If the carrier can perform an operation on the loading station, the terminal will display the operator message and the operation can be performed as on any other station.
If the carrier does not have an operation to perform, a message "Send or Reload" will instead be displayed, on other types of stations the terminal screen would display the message "Send carrier on".
If the loading operator sends the carrier off with the operator switch, it will continue on the route, however if the operator in this case decides to load another product it will result in a loading reject of the previous product.
This is a built in fault with code -1, and will show up in the order line statistics as a reject.
The same thing can also happen in the case the loading operator completes the loading operator by pressing the operator switch, but the carrier doesn't leave the station due to a routing error. If the operator in this case decides to start loading another product instead, the previous product will be rejected.
Cancel a Product Load
The operator may choose to cancel the loading operator and send away an empty carrier. This can be done with the command
Aborts current operation for carrier in work position and sends it for a recycle
Only works on primary terminal. On a loading station, the carrier will always be sent back to the same station. On other stations, the carrier can go to any station valid according to the route and the addressing strategy.
Use of recycle function can be limited. See Topic: Recycle Limit. Limit can be ignored with Permission: Ignore Recycle Limit.
The empty carrier will then take a lap on the line and return to a rail on the same station.
If the loading operation has already completed by pushing the operator switch, cancelling the load will result in a loading reject fault. If the operation is still ongoing, it will simply be aborted and the load counter of the order line decreased.
⚠️ If an operator on a loading station with a carrier in work position logs out, explicitly or via time out, the loading of that carrier will be canceled, even if the operation was completed.