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Mission 61 · Pro PLC programming exercise

Run the whole factory

Start-up, batching, bottling, rejects, robot, wrapper, AGV and safety: one programme for the whole plant.

Program the whole drinks factory at once. Bring up air and steam before anything produces, make and pasteurise sugar batches when the buffer tank runs low, run the bottling line only when it has product, air and room, knock every bad bottle off at the gate, hand full pallets to the wrapper and the AGV, and make the emergency stop and the light curtain safe.

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The 3D model factory this mission runs on Pro mission
Test replay

Utilities first, then the line

Test 1 of 9
Set by the testChecked by the testStep 11 of 11 · 2.2 s
Level
Expert
Time
About 240 min
Reward
+3000 XP
Rig
3D model factory
Siemens editors
SCL, LAD
Rockwell editors
Structured Text, Ladder
Course stage
31. Capstone: run the whole factory
Automatic tests

What the tests check

  1. Nothing produces until the air and steam are up; the compressor holds 6.5–8.0 bar.
  2. Every batch is held at 85 °C or hotter for a full 10 s before it moves, and never overfills the buffer.
  3. The line runs only with product, air and room for packs, and rejects every bad bottle and no good ones.
  4. Pallets move, wrap and ship in order, with no crashes.
  5. Emergency stop and the light curtain need a deliberate Reset; nothing starts by itself.
  1. Try it Use the buttons below the model and watch the rig respond.
  2. Test solution Every check runs on your code in one press.
  3. Replay If one fails, step through it one scan at a time to see why.
Why it matters

Where you’d see this on site

A bottling hall has a line controller above its machines. It starts the utilities, calls for product, tracks rejects and hands pallets on.

One missed interlock in a whole plant is a spilt buffer tank, an unpasteurised batch in the bottles, a crushed pallet or a robot that starts while someone is in the cell. The skill is keeping a dozen machines in step without ever letting one of them do something unsafe.

Where you'd find thisOne controller for a whole factory: when each machine may run, and what keeps it safe

A small drinks factory makes an orange drink. Sugar and water are batched and pasteurised, then pumped to a filler. Bottles are filled, capped, labelled and inspected, packed in sixes, stacked on pallets by a robot, wrapped and carried to the dock by a driverless forklift. Every machine has its own controls; the plant controller decides when each may run, hands work from one to the next, and stops everything safely.

  1. BatchMix and pasteurise
  2. FillFill, cap, label
  3. InspectReject bad bottles
  4. PackRobot stacks packsYou are here
  5. ShipWrap, AGV to dock
On a real site: places, parts and safety
  • Soft drinks and juice bottling halls
  • Sauces, dairy and liquid food plants
  • Household and personal-care liquids

An emergency stop is wired through a safety relay that cuts the power on its own. The programme must then hold everything off and wait for a deliberate Reset and Start, so nothing moves by surprise.

Robot cells are fenced. Light curtains and interlocked doors stop the robot when someone goes in, and a restart needs a reset from outside the cell, in the spirit of ISO 10218 and ISO 13849.

The sizes, timings and cutaways are teaching choices, not a drawing of any one real installation.

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