Allen-Bradley · ZPA · Gapping · Diagnostics

Conveyor Controls,
PLC & HMI Engineering

Sunshine State Automation writes the logic that decides whether a conveyor line holds its rate. Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and CompactLogix programming, HMI applications, ZPA accumulation, dynamic gapping, merge and divert control, control panels, diagnostics and commissioning, for new systems and for systems already running on your floor.

Controls and commissioning are the two steps we never subcontract.
Scope

The Logic Is the Product

Steel and rollers can be bought from a hundred vendors. What separates a conveyor system that runs at rate from one that merely moves is the code: how zones accumulate, how product is released, how gaps are calculated, how faults are isolated, and what the HMI tells the person standing in front of it at 2am.

PLC Programming

Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and CompactLogix in Studio 5000. Structured, commented, and written so the next engineer, including yours, can read it. We work in existing programs as readily as we write new ones.

HMI Development

Screens built for the operator, not the programmer. Live conveyor graphics, alarms that name the device and the next action, and guided recovery instead of a fault code and a shrug.

ZPA Accumulation

Zone-by-zone zero-pressure logic for MDR: no clutches, no air, no product-to-product contact. Accumulation depth, release behavior and slug versus singulated modes tuned to your product.

Dynamic Gapping

Release timing calculated from what is actually on the line, so cartons arrive singulated with the gap the downstream scanner or sorter needs, without stopping the line to meter them.

Merges, Diverts & Sortation

Lane priority, merge sequencing, product tracking through the divert window, and the handshakes with scanners and the host that keep tracking honest under load.

Control Panels & Field Wiring

Panels, zone wiring and field devices built and documented so your electricians can work on them later. Drawings that match what is actually in the enclosure.

WCS / WMS Integration

The interface between your conveyor and your host system: message handling, retries, reconciliation and what happens when the host goes quiet mid-shift.

Diagnostics & Fault Isolation

Every fault should point at a zone, a device and an action. We build the diagnostics in from day one rather than bolting them on after the first bad week.

Simulation & Commissioning

Logic written and simulated before anyone drives to site, then commissioned against your real rates and product mix until it holds.

Platforms & Devices

What We Work On

The equipment that shows up in distribution centers and manufacturing plants, and that we have had our hands in.

Allen-Bradley ControlLogixCompactLogixStudio 5000 FactoryTalk ViewEtherNet/IPConveyLinx / ERSC MDR driver cardsPhoto eyes & arraysBarcode scanners VFDsSafety circuits & E-stopsEncoders & tracking Print & applyScale & dimensioningWCS / WMS hosts
Where This Is Going

An HMI That Explains What Is Happening

We are building HMai, an intelligent HMI layer that combines live conveyor graphics, alarm context, guided troubleshooting and operator assistance, so a floor team can recover from a fault without waiting for the one person who understands the system. It came out of the same place everything else here did: standing on a floor at shift change, watching a good maintenance tech stare at an alarm that told them nothing useful.

HMai is the operator-facing part of OIP, our modular control and execution layer for conveyor and sortation. The connection matters for a controls conversation: the same team writing your ZPA and gapping logic is writing the layer above it, so the diagnostics an operator sees are derived from the code that produced the fault rather than reconstructed from tags by a third party after the fact. OIP is in active development and the modules are taken individually, not as a suite. Plenty of customers want sortation supervision and an operator interface and nothing else.

OIP and HMai in detail →

Straight Answers

Controls Questions We Get Asked

What PLC platforms do you program?

Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and CompactLogix are our primary platforms, with Studio 5000 and FactoryTalk on the HMI side. We work in existing programs as often as we write new ones, which means reading someone else's code under production pressure is a routine part of the job, not an exception.

Do you write the conveyor logic yourselves, or subcontract it?

We write it ourselves. Controls and commissioning are the two steps in a conveyor project that decide whether the line holds rate, and they are the two we never hand to anyone else.

What is ZPA logic and why does it matter?

Zero-pressure accumulation is the logic that lets each conveyor zone hold a product without the products touching each other. Done well it is invisible; done badly it shows up as crushed cartons, zones that will not release, phantom occupancy and a line that stalls under load. On MDR conveyor the accumulation behavior is entirely a controls decision, not a mechanical one.

What is dynamic gapping?

Gapping logic sets the release timing of each product so it arrives downstream with the separation the next device needs, whether that is a scanner that has to read one barcode at a time or a sorter that needs a clean divert window. Static timing works until the product mix changes; dynamic gapping calculates the release from what is actually on the line.

Can you simulate the code before you get to site?

Yes, and we do. Logic is written and simulated before anyone drives to your building, which is what keeps commissioning from becoming the phase where the program gets written for the first time in front of your operations team.

Do you build the control panels too?

Yes. Control panels, zone wiring and field devices, built and documented so your own electricians and maintenance team can work on them later rather than needing us for every change.

Get In Touch

Need Conveyor Logic Written, Fixed, or Finished?

New system, retrofit, or a program someone else left half done. Tell us the platform and the problem.