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ALMA OPERATION MANUAL

WARNING
ALMA system is a high-risk system while it is running in AUTO mode, enter

robot’s working rang may cause heavy safety accident.

Open the safety door or press EMERGENCY button before you enter

robot’s working area.

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STARTUP ALMA SYSTEM

1. Main switch on MCC

2. DC power key on operating box

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3. Power switch on robot’s controller cabinet

4. Click PLAY button to Startup transportation equipment in AUTO mode on HMI

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5. Startup robot in AUTO mode

5.1 Switch the key to AUTO mode

5.2 press ENABLE button on robot’s controller cabinet

5.3 press PLAY button on FlexPendant

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HMI OPERATION

1. Function instruction

Icon Instruction
Home window

Alarm list

Communication nets confirm window

Producing window

Delay time setting window

Recipe

user

Login and logout window

Logout to Pc window

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mute

Alarm reset

run

Reset pallet dispenser

stop

Emergency alarm

2. Log in with buhler, password is also buhler, you can operate every valve, motor by manual,
also including some other operations which need authorize.

 Never forget changing it back to auto mode before running the system.

3. Operation box instruction

a b c d e

a) 1: DC24V power supply switch

b) 2: safety relay reset button ---- once you open the safety door or press EMERGENCY
button, you need to press this button to reset safety relay.
c) 3: reset button
d) Spare
e) Emergency Stop
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4. Troubleshooting
e.g.
 Problem: Pallet was not coming out from pallet dispenser
 Reason 1: the sensor in front of dispenser was blocked

Photo sensor’s normal status: only green LED light on without detecting
anything; green and yellow LED light on when detecting something or the light
from sensor was not reflected by the light barrier.

 Reason 2: the sensor on the dispenser clamper cylinder was not at proper
position.

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 Reason 3: the sensor under the pallet was blocked by dust or sensor’s direction
has been changed.

 Pallet was jamming in pallet dispenser.

 After solving the problem, click reset button or the blue hard button

to clear the alarm, and click to unlock pallet dispenser.

 After these operation, if the pallet dispenser still not working, log in “buhler”
and operating in manual mode to let all pallets are on chain conveyor and clamp
open then press reset button for 5 seconds.

 Cleaning machines regularly is essential to reduce problems, especially for each

photo sensor.

5. Remote service
5.1 power on remote device with DC 24V

DC24V 0V

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5.2 connecting remote device to exchange box with Ethernet cable, both of their port are
LAN.

5.3 turn on your cell phone’s hotspot, changing hotspot’s name to buhler, and password is
12345678, then buhler engineer can connect to PLC system and do some work on line.

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ROBOT OPERATION

1. operating the robot in manual mode

1.1 switch to manual mode

1.2 hold the FlexPendant with your left hand, and the same time hold the enable button with
your four fingers.

1.3 choosing motion mode

If you choose Linear motion mode, you can move the robot straight according to
Cartesian coordinates.

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If you choose Axis 1-3 you can turn the robot axis 1,2,3, If you choose Axis 4-6 motion
mode you can turn the robot axis 6. There is no axis 4 and 5 for this kind palletizing
robot.

1.4 FlexPendant normal operating instructions

 Press EMERGENCY STOP button in any emergency.

 In case any accident, slow down robot’s speed once you have changed something
to ALMA, then you will have time to press EMERGENCY button in dangerous.

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 ProgKeys function
Only available in manual mode, you can open and close robot’s griper by press the
ProgKeys.

2. PP to Main
If you changing program point (PP), the screen of FlexPendant will show as following picture

In this situation, you just need to operate as following steps:

Step 1: PP to Main
Step 2: YES

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Confirm whether there is bag in robot’s gripper, and

click NO if there is bag in robot’s gripper or click YES if there is bag in robot’s gripper.

Double confirm:

Confirm whether there are bags on the pallet:

Click No if there is no bag on the pallet, robot will start up in auto mode;
Click YES if there are bags on the pallet.

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For GFI Feed Mill, recipe No. 5 is for 20kg bags, recipe No. 13 is for 20kg bags, .

Display what you have input 1

Double confirm:
Click NO if you have input a wrong number, then input the correct number in pop-up window
Click YES if there is a message “product X is placed on the pal”

Input correct number, otherwise you will cause a big accident.

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Double confirm:
this is the last chance to modify your input.
Click NO to modify the input number if you have made a mistake,
click YES to continue.

3. Adjustment
3.1 Following figure will show you robot’s base coordinate system, we can use our right hand
to enhance our memory.

3.2 Click MENU Program Data pos, to find Array name: nOffsPal01_40kg01, then we
can find each bag’s offset value, we can adjust each bag’s position by changing the offset
value.

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3.3 Example for adjustment

Array {1,1}···{1,100} means the robot’s placing bag sequence from the 1st to 100th
on the pallet, {1,1} [0, 0, 0] means there is no offset value based on the result
of calculation for the 1 bag ，{1,10}
st
[-20, 30, 0] means 10th bag move to
negative X axis direction 20mm and to positive Y axis direction 30mm based on the result
of calculation.

4. Backup and restore robot’s file

Please make sure the USB flash disk is safe and without virus before you connect it to the robot.

4.1 Backup Current System

 Preparing a clean USB flash disk, and insert it to Flexpendant

USB FLASH DISK

 Click MENUBackup and RestoreBackup Current System

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 Choosing proper backup path to make sure the file will be storage in USB flash disk

4.2 Restore System

For restore system, we just need to reverse operation sequence of backup file.

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Thank you for your patience, this is the end page.

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