Separator cutting false

Question

question

Marie Lisa asked Jul 11 2017 at 9:19 AM Joerg Vogel commented Jul 13 2017 at 7:52 AM

Separator cutting false

Hello guys,

We have a problem with cutting a whole layer. The only thing the separator does is to cut one by one string and only the first bit of the String from the OnExit expression. Just take a look at the attached model.

It should cut all the combined items a little bit down and then press the whole layer forward and cut the next bit and so on.

Is there any possibility to simulate this ?

Thank you in advance.

f5.png

trennschleif3.fsm

Software Version:

FlexSim 17.1.2

separator items cut

f5.png (71.7 KiB)

trennschleif3.fsm (892.5 KiB)

Answer 1 · 2017-07-11T13:18:18Z

Joerg Vogel answered Jul 11 2017 at 1:18 PM Joerg Vogel commented Jul 13 2017 at 7:52 AM

The separator is not cutting false. The object splitts only one item, because you can't set the maximum capacity at all. The Separator may be not a suitable object to get what you want. You can unpack or split your package of raw material and then cut each piece in another separator by splitting again.

What you are doing is repeating a cutting process on one item several times. This is a job of a multiprocessor. The number of processes defines how many pieces you get. After each single process you have to create another item in your model and move this to the next object in your material flow model. This copied item get the size of the part you cut away and the raw material's size is reduced in its size, too. Then the next Process starts.

saw-mill-one-piece-at-a-time.fsm (16.9 KiB)

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Joerg Vogel commented · Jul 11 2017 at 5:30 PM

Here the solution with packed items:

saw-mill-packaged-item.fsm

1 ·

saw-mill-packaged-item.fsm (18.1 KiB)

split-packed-item-at-multiprocessor.gif (863.7 KiB)

Joerg Vogel Joerg Vogel commented · Jul 12 2017 at 11:20 AM

In the final step you probably like to see cylinders instead of boxes. The permament rotating is troublesome. You can rotate the shape of an object by code. Unfortunately the attributes doesn't exists at the objects in their tree. You have to edit the shape factors at the properties Genaral tab once. Here is the picture story to get a correct rotated shape of a cylinder item.

If you start to code without activating the shape attributes, you get this error. Then activate the shape factors.

Now you can run the model without any system errors.

The shape get a new orientation. The shape is located next to the object frame. Adjust the shape position.

The shape fits into the object frame. This can you all do in the Shape Factors Editor, too, but sometimes you need to change the visual look of an item at an object. Then you can change the rotation, location and size by code.

0 ·

code-rotate-shape-of-item-error.jpg (134.0 KiB)

activate-offset-shape-attributes.gif (1.1 MiB)

code-rotate-shape-of-item-faulty.jpg (146.3 KiB)

code-rotate-shape-of-item-finish.jpg (147.5 KiB)

Sinisa Joerg Vogel commented · Jul 12 2017 at 11:25 AM

Thank you very much for your help , you helped us a lot ! :)

How can we reward you ?

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Marie Lisa Joerg Vogel commented · Jul 12 2017 at 4:55 AM

@Jörg Vogel

Hello Jörg,
Thank you very much for your help thats what we where searching for.
Would it be possible to give us the simulation from the gif? Because the second simulation (saw-mill-packaged) is just the same like the upper one.

Thank you in advance.

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Joerg Vogel Marie Lisa commented · Jul 12 2017 at 6:39 AM

@Marie Lisa, the second one is the variant with a packed item. If you add a Separator and use the funktion unpack, you get all the small pieces. I'll add the enhanced model at work.

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Sinisa commented · Jul 13 2017 at 6:32 AM

@Jörg Vogel Do you know how i can seperate the "Ausschuss" from the good pieces at the end of the Multiprocessor?

Greets :)

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Joerg Vogel Sinisa commented · Jul 13 2017 at 7:52 AM

@Elisabeth Sestili, in the multiprocessor you can only decide if a packed item (10 pieces together) is good or faulty. The instrument to distinguish where the good items or the bad items go, is the port number of the releaseitem(..) function in the OnProcessfinish trigger code. It is the last parameter in the function. Momentarily all items, which are separated from the original item, go to port 1. But the output port of the original item, that leaves the Multiprocessor last, is defined in the SendTo-function of Flow tab of the properties of the Multiprocessor.

Instead of releaseitem-function you can use "moveobject(..)", but then you overrule the optional methods to initiate the transport by a taskexecuter.

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Answer 2 · 2017-07-11T16:31:34Z

Jordan Johnson answered Jul 11 2017 at 4:31 PM

If I understand correctly, you have steel coming in to the separator, that needs to be cut into small layers, and you want to see an animation of the steel being pushed forward a little, then cut, then pushed forward a little more, and then cut again, until the steel is all used up.

If this is the case, then the Separator might only be part of the solution. The Separator does not split items incrementally. Instead, it asks how long it takes to split all the items. In your case, the Separator is making all the cuts simultaneously, rather than cut by cut.

Maybe you could use the Separator, with a queue and a processor to get what you want. You could use the separator to split the steel into all the pieces you need in zero model time. Then you could send all those pieces to a queue, and feed them one at a time to a processor.

I have attached a simple model of this second approach. I will say, though, that @Jörg Vogel's approach is a lot cleaner.

Neither of these approaches have the exact animation effect you are looking for, but both are (or can be) mathematically correct, as far as the simulation time goes. This kind of animation is surprisingly complicated, and so is difficult to create without a lot of code.incrementalcutter.fsm

incrementalcutter.fsm (15.3 KiB)

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