question

chao.g avatar image
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chao.g asked Brandon Peterson commented

Conveyor Process Flow for Acquire & Release Area

conveyor-process-flow-test.fsmIn the attached model, I am having two small models trying to do the same thing, upper one I am using a station, lower one I am using a decision point.

So when the item arrives at the decision point, there is a 50%, 50% chance to go to either of the two output connections. In the upper one, where I am using stations, it keeps saying Station is an invalid destination to send item, but when I am using decision point and the same logic, it works okay. Not sure why is this happening.

Also, is there a way to use process flow to control the system so that there can't be any part accumulation on the conveyor, just 1 part in each individual station. I can use acquire and release to do that, but when going large scale, process flow is way easier.

Please suggest!

Thanks,

FlexSim 16.2.1
conveyor process flow
conveyor-process-flow-test.fsm (27.2 KiB)
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1 Answer

Regan Blackett avatar image
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Regan Blackett answered Brandon Peterson commented

@chao.gao

The short answer is yes, you can definitely use process flow to help out here, a Zone is probably the key element you will need to use. In fact I just answered a similar question here.

I would follow a similar approach for your model by causing an Event Triggered Source to create a token when your source object creates a flowitem, closing the ports of the source, and reopening them when your Tokens enter the zone.

Here's an Example:

conveyor-processflow-control.fsm

PS, I don't know why the Station is an "invalid destination". That feels like a bug.


conveyor-processflow-control.fsm (29.1 KiB)
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chao.g avatar image chao.g commented ·

@phil.bobo

Could you take a look at this sample model, for the item traveling from station to station, is that a bug?

Thanks,

Chao

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Phil BoBo avatar image Phil BoBo ♦♦ chao.g commented ·

When the station was added, conveyorsenditem() was never updated to make it work with stations. We've fixed it for the next bug fix release so that you can send to stations.

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chao.g avatar image chao.g Phil BoBo ♦♦ commented ·

When is the next release date?

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Brandon Peterson avatar image Brandon Peterson ♦ commented ·

Chao,

Here is an adjusted version of your model that should now be doing what you want it to do.

The reason that you were getting the invalid destination errors was because a station is not a valid destination. In the future a station may become a valid destination but at this time it is not. I simply added a decision point in front of the stations and sent the items there.

I was able to limit the items on the conveyor by using a zone with a max content of 1 for each station.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Good Luck,

Brandon

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conveyor-process-flow-test-v2016-2-0-mv-1.fsm (62.0 KiB)