This thesis presents the automation of a filling line for chocolate fillings at the company Incom d.o.o. The line is intended for the automatic preparation of a mixture of chocolate base and fillings, which is transferred to a tempering vessel for further processing once the process is complete.
The automation process includes filling and emptying the main chocolate base basin, controlled by a weighing scale using hysteresis logic, the addition of fillings from a barrel via a pump, and mixing both components in an inline mixer. The main goal of the work was to design and implement a control system that ensures safe, repeatable and controlled operation of the filling, emptying and mixing sequence.
A Siemens S7-1200 programmable logic controller was used for the implementation of the project, together with a SIMATIC TP900 Comfort HMI. The program logic was developed in the TIA Portal environment and includes control of the filling and emptying sequence of the main chocolate base basin, operation of the inline mixer, step-based regulation of the filling pump speed instead of conventional PID control, an alarm system, and a mass totalizer for monitoring the consumption of the chocolate base and fillings. Several screens were created on the HMI for process monitoring, user management via an RFID system, creating and running recipes, monitoring alarms, and setting process parameters.
The results of the work show that the developed control system enables stable and repeatable operation of the filling line, as well as transparent process monitoring via the HMI. The step-based regulation proved to be a suitable alternative to conventional PID control for the given application. The implemented solution for the entire filling line also allows for further upgrades and improvements.
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