One of the most time-consuming steps in the toothbrush manufacturing process is removing the runner from the toothbrush. When the injection molding machine makes toothbrushes, it produces 16 toothbrushes at once, with the paths for the plastic to flow being called runners. After making these toothbrushes, the runners need to be removed. Traditionally, this has been done manually, cutting the runners by hand, which takes a lot of time and effort. This was the main motivation for creating this machine. My contributions to this project were firmware development, control system design, and electrical panel board wiring.

I utilized the ClearCore motion controller as the main microcontroller for this project. This project consists of two stepper motors and about 10 solenoid valves to complete the cutting process. The main reason for using the ClearCore motion controller is its built-in features, such as 24V capable I/O ports, built-in Ethernet, and a built-in SD card adapter. All these features were used in this project.

To implement the HMI feature for this machine, I developed the firmware to avoid blocking the main thread, allowing continuous listening for HMI communication data. Moreover, this project requires precision because the stepper motors need to travel exactly the same distance, which can be challenging. However, by implementing the Robust zero detection function with soft limits, the machine can achieve very precise movements even after thousands of cycles.

One of the major features that needed to be added was an HMI for the robotics machine, as there are many parameters that need to be changed according to the requirements and lots of statistical data that need to be displayed on the HMI. To implement the HMI for this runner cutter machine, I used a Nextion 7-inch display and established communication using serial communication with the ClearCore motion controller. Due to the difficulty of accessing the EEPROM of the ClearCore motion controller, we implemented SD card functionality to save user data and settings to the machine. This approach allows us to store each value without any limitations, unlike using the EEPROM.