Control and automation of a heat shrink tubing process

This paper discusses the control and automation of heat shrink tubing process that benefits the wire harness industry. A prototype of heat shrink tubing process is under development consisting of a custom-made radial heat chamber with two heat guns designed to move horizontally along a wire harness fitted into shrink-tubing material. The prototype is automated using a linear positioning system that continuously monitors the chamber position, speed, temperature, and achieve the desired heat treatment of the tubing material for proper shrinkage. This process is currently being performed manually in industries resulting in the loss of resources such as human operator time and energy. This article reports on recent progress made to interface an Allen Bradley PLC with a servo translational system by Kollmorgen and compare with computer simulations. In particular, it is shown that the controller can effectively maintain the desired