Production
A production route is at the very core of the Eton System and describes all the steps that an article normally takes through the system. Every article should have a production route assigned to it, and the carrier is assigned the production route by the loading operation.
A production route always starts with a Loading operation and ends with an Unloading operation.
Every production route also needs to have a Return Empty Carrier route assigned to it that describes the steps needed for the empty carrier to eventually return to the loading station.
Return Empty Carrier
A route type that describes how an empty carrier returns to the loading stations, either directly or via a buffer. All production routes should have an assigned Return Empty Carrier route.
This route type needs to end with a "Return Empty Carrier" operation back to the loading stations, but can be ended prematurely if a carrier on this type of route reaches a loading station even before the "Return Empty Carrier" operation.
Optionally, Return Empty Carrier routes can be assigned a Route Code, and empty carriers can then be assigned to a Return Empty Carrier route with a terminal command.
Send an empty carrier on a specific empty carrier route.
| emptyCarrierRouteCode | The Route Code of the REC route to send the carrier on. |
Inspection
An inspection route is a side route that the carrier will go on if a random sampling is triggered, or an operator decides that this carrier needs to be inspected.
Inspection routes are required to have an assigned Route Code.
If the operator could not complete the operation and wish to send this carrier to inspection
Aborts current operation for carrier in work position and sends it for inspection on a given route.
| inspectionRouteCode | Route code of inspection route to send carrier on |
If the operator has completed the operation and with to send this carrier to inspection
Completes current operation for carrier in work position and sends it for inspection
| inspectionRouteCode | Code of wanted inspection route |
Repair
Repair routes are used if there are dedicated repair stations for a certain type of fault. Repair routes are assigned to a fault, and carriers will go on that route if a fault of that type is registered.
Repair routes can optionally be set up with an inspection route that the carrier will go on once the repair has completed.
Overflow
Operations can be assigned an overflow route, which carriers will assigned to if all the recieving stations for that operation are unavailable.
An overflow route will generally contain a buffer operation that is performed on a station that is configured as a Fifo or Mixed buffer. These buffer types will automatically send back carriers to the target operation as soon as possible.
Collection
Carriers that are discovered in the system, but are not currently on any route or addressed anywhere are automatically sent to collection. This can be the case if new carriers are added to the system.
Only one route in the system can be set up with the collection type.
Examine
An examine route is a special route carriers flagged for examination will go on before they do the normal empty carrier route. Like collection, there can only exist one in the system. Normally an Examine type operation should be performed on this type of route.