Watch this video to learn how to set up your PL-521 Horizontal Wrap Around machine.
Intro [00:00:09] Hi, I'm Jaydon with Pack Leader USA. Thanks for purchasing our PL-521 labeling machine. Today we're gonna look at the feeder, the conveyor and guide rails. We're also going to look at the label head, the wrap station and the control box.
Leveling the Machine [00:00:30] So once you get your machine rolled into place, we will make sure that we lock down all the leveling pads. So these are down here. We'll go ahead and screw these down. You may need to use a wrench to do this. And then we also would just want make sure that the lock nuts tighten as well so it doesn't rattle out of place. One feature that the PL-521 one has is, it's got leg extensions inside here. Right now, the conveyor height is at 32 inches. If we loosen these four Allen head screws on these collars here, that'll allow us to raise the whole unit up and take it up another ten inches to forty-four inches.
Feeder Setup & Adjustment [00:01:09] We're gonna go ahead and set up our feeder. And to do that, we're gonna make sure that the door on here is adjusted to the height of this container. The reason for that is so that way the bottles will fall through straight and not tilt over or fall to the side. For the purposes of this video, we're doing to be doing a little glass bottle. So I'll go ahead and place it inside of here and we're gonna go ahead and pull down the door. So that way it's adjusted correctly for this bottle. And then it'll fall through correctly.
Loading the Feeder [00:01:45] We're gonna go ahead and load up our feeder. To do that, we'll go ahead and open the door. And on this feeder, we've got the star wheel, we would just stack all of our containers inside of here. One thing I'll point out is we've got a low product sensor right here. So once the bottles pass that, when it gets low on the feeder, it'll turn off the star wheel. And that way it won't keep feeding when there's not any top pressure on top of the containers. Now you can go and load up our feeder.
Guide Rail Adjustment [00:02:50] To set up the guide rails, what we have here is we've got some up and down and in and out adjustments on these. So what we can do is if I loosen this thumb screw here, I can adjust the rails up and down. And so we'll go out and set this one just above the rollers, we wanna make sure that it's not pressing down onto the rollers, it's just above them. And then got our bottle in here, so we'll go and make sure that are in and out adjustment is set up correctly. And then this a let the bottle run through into the applicator properly. On this guide rail in the back here, we're going to go and set up the height adjustment, someone to go ahead and lower this just above the rollers. And then I'm going to kind of have it maybe at an angle a little bit for this container. And this will make sure that as it's going by it'll press it down into the, into the collection table.
Label Head Threading [00:03:43] So now we're at the applicator, we're going to go ahead and look at installing the labels on there. We've got a wind diagram that kinda shows how those are going to go through. But I'll go and put them on here and talk about how to put these on. So we're going to take off this supply reel right here. Go ahead and put our labels on. So the first part of here is we're going to go around the break arm, this will allow it to release some slack as the label head's pulling the labels through. We'll come around this roller here, just a guide roller. Then we're going to go through this felt pad, and this is going to maintain tension throughout the rest of the label head. So we want to make sure that that's tight. To do that, if you turn back this spring-loaded rod right here, and then you loosen the thumb screw on the felt pad and pull him through there. Come around this guide roller right here, and then we'll go in between the label sensor. And then through this guide roller, down through the peel plate, and then we'll come around to the PU roller, which is this black rubber roller here, and this is what's actually going to pull our labels through. So we want to make sure we're going through here and then we're going to take the labels in between this rod and the knurl roller, which is this textured roller here. So we'll go on between both of those. I'm going around this plate. And then once we get through there, we'll make sure it's pressed down to the bottom and we'll go and close the knurl roller. And that's going to pinch the labels in between here, so that way it's got some pressure was pulling it through. And the last part is the take up real. So we'll take our labels around here, take the J hook out, put it back on with the labels through it, and then this will pull up all the waste. The last part we've got is the keepers, we're just going to press all those down. Keep the label from riding up.
Wrap Station Setup [00:05:49] To set up our wrap station, which is located right next to the label head, we're gonna go ahead and take our bottle and we'll put it underneath it right here on the conveyor. And we're gonna use the up and down adjustment to lower the wrap station on top of the bottle. What we're going to want to do is put a little bit of pressure, we're gonna touch the wrap station to the side of the bottle. And this is like a foam belt on here, it's can actually wrap the label or press it around the container. So I'll go and do that right now. Lower it on top. And then we can also control the in and out adjustment back here. So we want to make sure that the wrap station is pressing on the label entirely. So I'm gonna pull it back a little bit and that way it'll press down the entire label.
Control Box Components [00:06:45] If you need to get inside of your control box, I'll go ahead and show you how to do that now. We just want to make sure to unplug our power. And there's a couple screws under here that we're going to need to take out, so we'll go and remove those real quick. And then this will allow us to hinge open the box and then we can open up the door to get inside here. And inside here we have the transformer, we have the VFP for the conveyor, and the wrap station. We have the DC power supply for all of our low voltage. We have the stepper driver for the label head. And then we have the PLC. We have our fuses for all the components over here. And then we have our PC board.
Supply Power to Machine [00:07:43] Before powering up your machine, we want to make sure that our power cord is plugged into a dedicated line. This will help ensure the lifespan of the electrical components inside. We can also have this machine ran off of an option of 110 volts as well as 220 volts.
HMI Controls [00:08:02] We're going to go and power up our machine to do that, we're going to release the e-stop, make sure there's some green showing here and then we're going to go and turn on the power switch. So here we're at the home screen, I'm gonna press enter. And we've got these five submenus. We're going to start with labeling mode. So we'll go in here. We've got the link setting. So this will help us jog the labels or set the link set. We have the label peel delay, which will allow us to adjust the timing from when the labels are dispensed. We have the pre-count, this will let us put in a value, predetermined value. If we put in one hundred around one hundred bottles and then turn off the machine. We have the counter clear that keeps track of how many bottles have been ran through. And then we have got the conveyor on, labeling on, and feeder on. Next, we've got setting mode. So we'll go through here, we've got one through eight different speeds for the conveyor. We also can turn on the missing label function, and if this detects a missing label, it'll turn off the machine. And we also have the hot stamp printer function, we can turn that on or off. Then we have memory mode. When we go in here, we can enter in a memory that we would like to save the machine at. So we enter one and then we can store for recall. The memory guide mode is a basic startup. So it's going to go through each setting one by one. So it'll start to turn on the conveyor, let the label sensor calibration the link setting. It'll ask, for the missing label to set that up. It's got the hot stamp printer, conveyor speed. And then next, we've got troubleshooting mode, and this has just basic troubleshooting tips you can use to fix any problems you have with your machine.
Train Label Sensor [00:10:00] To set up your label censor, what we're going to do is peel off a label. So I'm going to do that real quick. Then we're going to use the link set to jog the labels through. And we want the sensor reading only the backing paper. So we don't want any label in there. Once we're there, we're going to hold down the normal button for three seconds. And you'll see the green LED blink and then it'll stop blinking. And then we're going to hold down the link set until we have a label flagged off of the peel plate two to three millimeters.
Train Product Sensor [00:10:41] To set up the product sensor, what we're going to do is use this thumb screw here and this will allow us to adjust where the sensor is actually reading the container. For most applications, you're going to want to have it just in line with the peel plate.
Contact Us [00:11:19] To learn more about the PL-521, please visit our resources section at PackLeaderUSA.com.