Offal Drop-Out Pot Vacuum Timer (Siemens LOGO!)

The offal drop-out pot operates a straightforward cycle: the pot closes, the panel opens a vacuum valve to draw waste away, holds the vacuum for a set period, then closes the valve and reopens the pot to complete the cycle. It's a single timed sequence with no branching logic, no networking requirement, and no other equipment to coordinate with.

Thomas Hadden specified a Siemens LOGO! for the control platform rather than a full PLC. The task didn't justify one: LOGO! covers the timing function directly, and its on-unit display lets the customer adjust the vacuum-hold time themselves. For a single-purpose timer on a customer site, that accessibility mattered more than the headroom a larger PLC would have offered.

The panel was built for an existing customer, carrying the same enclosure and wiring standards down to a smaller-scope job: a Siemens power supply, the LOGO! unit and its display, and the wiring to the vacuum solenoid valve, all housed in a stainless enclosure suited to the washdown environment.

The result is a control panel scaled correctly to the task. The customer gets a reliable timed vacuum cycle with an adjustable setpoint they can change themselves, without paying for capability the process will never use.