Think & Do Software and Mantissa Corporation: A Winning Combination Gets the Job Done at a Small Fraction of the Usual Time and Cost
Mantissa Corporation, an OEM based in Charlotte, NC, manufactures high-speed tilt tray sortation systems used in large distribution and material handling systems. These systems utilize induction style conveyors to move groups of discrete products into designated areas where a sortation system identifies the product, usually by barcode, and conveys it to a predefined transfer point. Once the material reaches its transfer point, the tray is tilted to gravity-feed the product to a packing station or upstream conveyor.
In an application for a major retail book reseller, Mantissa's challenge was to put together two sortation systems, each with dual induction conveyor systems. Both control systems had to manage their local conveyors while communicating with five PCs to gather information such as bar code, price, title, ISBN number, etc. The sortation control system had to control 800 distributed I/O points per system while communicating to a host computer. In all, their mission was to manage 26 computers and 1,600 I/O points.
Mantissa knew from the complexity of the new system that they had reached a turning point in control. They needed a system that could both solve their growing control needs and support communications between the control systems. Their solution had to be easy-to-learn, use, and maintain so future system control enhancements could be done efficiently. Although many of its past control solutions had been PLC-based, their most recent solution was computer-based with custom "C" code. These systems functioned well, but since a third party developed the "C" code, it was subsequently difficult to change without further financial investment with that third party.
After evaluating their options, Mantissa chose Think & Do Software, a PC-based I/O control system available from AutomationDirect. Moving their control to a standard Windows® NT™ PC platform satisfied Mantissa's need for fast communications between the two control systems as well as among the 26 induction PCs. Think & Do Software includes a standard Windows® DCOM interface which facilitates intercommunication between the PCs, allowing them to use Visual Basic, and run it concurrently with the Think & Do Software. The control portion of the sortation system was programmed by Think & Do Software in easy-to-understand flowcharts rather than ladder diagrams or "C". Mantissa distributed its 1600 I/O throughout the sortation system network, which was over 3000' in length.
Greg Kissel, engineering manager, sums up his experience with Think & Do: "Using flowcharts gave us the power of a higher level language along with the benefit of having control software that can be easily understood and implemented by a non-technical person. With Think & Do arrays, we streamlined major portions of our software design. Once a portion of the code was completed, we could "cookie cutter" it to other areas. Think & Do flowchart programming and debug tools saved us significant time and money. The bottom line is this: we completed the entire software development in one- third the time, at one-half the cost ."
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