Discuss Motor control for chicken house in the Commercial Electrical Advice area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

grumpyjohn01

-
Esteemed
Arms
Reaction score
195
Hi All, Due to unforseen circumstances I have inherited a chicken farmer as a customer. He has just taken on another free range egg unit and wishes to install motorised 'pop holes' so that he can remotely open and close the doors for the chickens via a GSM module.(there are also push buttons in the plant room to manually operate.) He already has purchased a suitable motor / gearbox arrangement with limit switches and emergency limits (S11 & S12 are the working switches) .
I am somewhat out of my comfort zone here but have drawn up the attached layout to control the motor. I have omitted circuit protection, neutral & earth for clarity. I think this will work, but have I missed anything? I don't think emergency stops are required as the doors close really really slowly and will be camera monitored. I have tried to consider all possible conditions but am now going a bit cross eyed so might well have messed up. Am therefore appealing to the collective wisdom. Looking forward to replies! Thanks. John

View attachment pop hole 001.jpg
 
What do the three phase close contacts control? the open has the motor, but nothing on the close contacts.
 
If this is a workplace, and these gates are qutomatic, and could cause harm to a person, or livestock, or the system cause a fire, then full workplace legisation applies.
These gates move under power, thus they are by definition machinery under the machinery directive.
You are changing the function, thus they must meet the requirements of the machinery directive.
Both you and the farmer will be commiting criminal offences if this is not so.
Like it or not, that is the law.
 
If this is a workplace, and these gates are qutomatic, and could cause harm to a person, or livestock, or the system cause a fire, then full workplace legisation applies.
These gates move under power, thus they are by definition machinery under the machinery directive.
You are changing the function, thus they must meet the requirements of the machinery directive.
Both you and the farmer will be commiting criminal offences if this is not so.
Like it or not, that is the law.
Thanks Paul, I will take that into account, but aside, can you run your expert eye over my drawing?
 
I can, but not properly until I am in the UK realistically, I am currently in China doing machinery safety consulting, & it’s time for bed now, I am up early in the morning here.
If you do this and it is not compliant, I hope you are insured, and not a sole trader, because, there are more laws involved here than there are in normal BS 7671 work, and, more liability if it is not compliant and an issue occurs.
 
1st thoughts in seconds.
No control transformer, no control circuit protection, you mention emergency limits, no safety function, no emergency stop.
What is the ISO 13849-1 performance level required?
What safety systems are in place to prevent injury to persons if the remote control is operated?
Nothing is evident.

Really need bed now.
 
May be my eyesight but I can't see any interlocks or safety device preventing both conctacters operating at the same time
Is this not achieved with the wire from the open button going through the closed contactors aux nc contacts and closed button's through the open contactors aux nc contacts?
 
Ok here is another go, I rectified at least one mistake. The coil of the open contactor is energised via NC aux contacts of closed contactor and vice-versa, is this not interlocking?
The doors themselves are lightweight plywood being winched up or lowered down under gravity, I doubt they could even bruise a chicken. Is the 'safety device' being mentioned to stop the doors causing injury?

View attachment pop hole 003.jpg
 
Motor control for chicken house {filename} | ElectriciansForums.net

what happens when the door gets stuck open and the chicken fly the coupe.
 
I can't see any interlocks or safety device either. Did you get this resolved?
Hi there, Thanks for your response, I probably posted before I thought enough about this! I derived my drawing from a standard reversing contactor diagram and the info that came with the motor/gearbox. Are you familiar with this sort of stuff? Am I on the right lines? The interlock mentioned seems to me to be achieved with my last drawing (003) but I am seeing reversing contactors online with mechanical interlocks, does this do away with the need for this? What sort of additional safety devices are we talking about here? Oh & btw I have added a stop in series between the overload NC contacts and the emergency limit switches. Thanks John.
 
Ok here is another go, I rectified at least one mistake. The coil of the open contactor is energised via NC aux contacts of closed contactor and vice-versa, is this not interlocking?
The doors themselves are lightweight plywood being winched up or lowered down under gravity, I doubt they could even bruise a chicken. Is the 'safety device' being mentioned to stop the doors causing injury?

A reversing starter normally has electrical and mechanical interlocking for redundancy.

Is something getting crushed by the door the only possible way this could cause injury? Is it impossible for something to get caught in the tracks the door runs in or crushed by the top of the door as it is raised?
What about the motor, gearbox and whatever mechanism connects them to the door, is it possible for something to get caught in there?
Will anyone need to do any maintainence or setting of limits with the system energised?

Machinery is not my area, but these things seem like obvious possible dangers to me.
 
Reversing contactors require both a mechanical and electrical interlock.

They are quite often sold together.

This was discussed in a thread before, an I posted relevant regulations to match. I can't find it to quote right now though.
 

Reply to Motor control for chicken house in the Commercial Electrical Advice area at ElectriciansForums.net

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock