The Envelope Counting system counts and logs the numbers of finished envelopes from nine continuously operating production lines. Counts are updated every minute and all count data for all production lines is stored to a single file that is closed off at the end of each shift. Shift files are imported to Excel for calculation of per machine and per shift production statistics.
The system takes counter inputs via two National Instruments Compact FieldPoint cFP-1808 Interfaces fitted with cFP-CTR-500 Counter Modules. Count data is saved to a single TDMS file. TDMS is a proprietary binary file format that is well suited to the efficient storage of multi-channel raw measurement data together with associated descriptive meta data (in this case information such as shift start and finish times). The meta data can apply at the level of the whole file, to groups of channels within the file, or to specific individual channels. A standard plugin allows TDMS data to be imported to Excel.
NI Compact FieldPoint, LabVIEW