Phase 5. Battery treatment and QA

Now that the electrode groups have been placed inside the battery case, the case will be covered with a lid and the battery terminals will be welded. After this the battery will undergo a quality check. Batteries that have passed the quality check will be filled with acid while the defective batteries will be removed from the production line.

Let’s start modeling these processes with preparing the layout.

Prepare the layout

1. Drag the  Station element from the Material Handling section of the  Space Markup palette and place it on the  batteryConveyor.
2. Name the station addCapAndTerminalsStation.
3. In the station’s properties specify the following:
   • Visible: no
   • Process time: 1 minute
   • Length: 1 meter
4. Add another station to the conveyor and name it qaStation.
5. In the properties of the station specify:
   • Visible: no
   • Process time: uniform( 20, 30 ) seconds
   • Length: 1 meter
6. Adjust the placement of the stations of the conveyor according to the layout.

   

7. Drag the  Turntable element from the Material Handling section of the  Space Markup palette palette and place it on the  batteryConveyor.

   

   The turntable element divides the conveyor it has been placed on into two independent conveyors.
8. Double-click the  Conveyor element in the  Space Markup palette to switch to the drawing mode and draw another conveyor branching from the turntable according to the layout.
9. Name the new conveyor defectiveBatteryConveyor.
10. In the Position and size section of its properties specify the following:
    • Z: 20
    • Width: 0.5 meter

    

11. Add another station after the turntable to the  batteryConveyor1 and name it electrolyteFillingStation.
12. In its properties specify the following:
    • Visible: no
    • Process time: 2 minutes
    • Capacity: 3
    • Length: 2.5 meter

    

Add the 3D animation

1. Drag the Heat Sealing Machine 3D object from the Manufacturing section of the  3D Objects palette to the  Main graphical diagram and place it over the  addCapAndTerminalsStation.
2. In the displayed Auto scale 3D object dialog window click Yes.
3. In the same manner use the Leakage Testing Machine 3D object from the Manufacturing section of the  3D Objects palette to create 3D animation for the  qaStation and the Filling Machine 3D figure for the  electrolyteFillingStation.
4. Consult the image below for the correct placement of the stations:

   

Furthermore, let’s enhance the animation of the battery case to make it more realistic. Initially, we’ve used a simple black container, but during this phase we add a lid to the container and build the terminals. All these actions take place at the  addCapAndTerminalsStation.

1. Go to the  Projects view and double-click the  Battery agent in the model tree.
2. Scroll the bottom of the Manufacturing section of the  3D Objects palette and find the Lead Acid Battery 3D object.
3. Drag the object to the  Battery agent graphical diagram and place it over the previous animation.
4. In the displayed Auto scale 3D object dialog window click Yes.
5. In the Lead Acid Battery 3D object properties specify Visible: no.
6. Now, go to the  addCapAndTerminalsStation properties, expand the Actions section and type the following code in the On process finished field:

   agent.industrial_container_1.setVisible(false);
   agent.lead_acid_battery.setVisible(true);

   This way, when the batteries leave this station, one 3D figure will become invisible, while the other 3D figure will become visible.

Now, let’s build the logic behind this production phase.

Add the logic

1. Add a  Convey block to the flowchart after the combine block.
2. Name it conveyBattery.

   

3. In the block’s properties specify the Convey from: Current position and the Target conveyor:  batteryConveyor1.
   This block will direct the major flow of the batteries along the conveyor.
4. Drag another  Convey block to the  Main graphical diagram and connect it to the port at the bottom of the conveyBattery block.

   

5. Name the block conveyDefective and specify the following parameters in the block’s properties:
   • Convey from: Current position
   • Target conveyor:  defectiveBatteryConveyor
   This block will direct the batteries that haven’t passed the quality assurance to a different conveyor.
6. Add a  Sink block to the flowchart after the conveyDefective block.

   

7. Go to the  qaStation properties, expand the Actions section and type the following code in the On process finished field:

   if (randomTrue(0.01))
         conveyBattery.cancel(agent);

   This way we model the batteries that don’t pass the quality assurance test. Now some of the agents passing through the  qaStation will be cancelled. The cancelled agents will exit the conveyBattery block through its cancel port situated at the bottom of the block and will go through the conveyDefective block.

8. Run the model.

   

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