Device and method for automatic generation of control instructions for rotary machines

A method of automatically generating control instructions for at least one controller that controls components of a rotary machine that coats bottles, said rotary machine comprising processing stations arranged to rotate around a central point, the at least one controller that controls said components of said rotary machine, at least one programmable computer that generates said control instructions for said at least one controller, and an input and display device connected with the at least one programmable computer;

• wherein said processing stations comprise holders for said bottles and comprise means for performing process steps to coat said bottles according to circumferential positions of said processing stations about said central point;
• wherein said method comprises the steps of:
• a) defining respective segments distributed circumferentially around the rotary machine with corresponding circumferential position parameters in a first menu level of the at least one programmable computer;
• b) determining corresponding functions of the rotary machine or the processing stations required to control said process steps for coating said bottles within said respective segments in a second menu level of the at least one programmable computer, with reference to the respective segments defined in the first menu level, wherein the corresponding functions associated with the respective segments are selected interactively and selectively by means of the input and display device connected with the at least one programmable computer;
• and
• c) automatically generating said control instructions in the form of a control code in the at least one programmable computer for said process steps performed in the respective segments from on the basis of the corresponding functions interactively selected by means of the input and display device in step b);
• wherein said control code is a machine code in which said position parameters and machine control parameters of the corresponding functions entered interactively via the menu levels are automatically input and the machine code is automatically generated from a machine code template and said parameters;
• and
• wherein said corresponding functions comprise gas monitoring, gas control, valve control, valve monitoring, plasma control, plasma monitoring, microwave control, microwave monitoring, temperature monitoring and temperature control.