Control apparatus for producing and/or handling a plastic film
AssigneeBrüCkner Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG
InventorsSimon Lössl, Wilhelm Wagner, Wolfgang Zintz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved control apparatus for producing plastic films and an associated improved method are distinguished, inter alia, by the following features: —the control apparatus has two stages or at least two stages, —the control apparatus comprises, for this purpose, a sensor module and/or a sensor model and a process module and/or a process model, —the machine-dependent sensor module and/or sensor model and the production-dependent process module and/or process model are linked or can be linked to one another via production variables, —adjustable machine variables are connected or linked to plant production variables via the sensor module and/or the sensor model.
Claims17
A control apparatus for setting settable machine variables of a machine used in manufacturing plastics flat sheet films, cast films, monoaxially, uniaxially, sequentially biaxially or simultaneously biaxially stretched plastics films, or for manufacturing blown films, including double-bubble films, tri-bubble films or multi-bubble films, the control apparatus being designed to be at least two-stage, the control apparatus comprising at least one processor configured to provide structure comprising:
- a machine-dependent sensor model connected to a plurality of sensors, the sensor model qualitatively and quantitatively establishing a link between machine variables and process variables, wherein the machine variables are characteristics of the machine and the process variables are characteristics of material to be processed by the machine;
- a production-dependent process model that qualitatively and quantitatively establishes a link between production variables and product characteristics, wherein the production variables are process variables that describe a production process and the product characteristics are process variables that describe a final product;
- the machine-dependent sensor model and the production-dependent process model being mutually associated by production variables,
- the sensor model linking or associating settable machine variables with production variables on the machine side,
- the settable machine variables including one or more machine variables from the group consisting of cooling water temperature, heating temperature of heating systems, fan speeds of ventilators, and tensile stresses in the transverse and/or length direction of a plastics web that is to be drawn off,
- the production variables including one or more production variables from the group consisting of plastics film temperature and film tensile forces acting on the plastics film in the transverse direction and/or length direction,
- the process model linking or associating the production variables with product characteristics of the plastics film to be manufactured by the machine, and
- the product characteristics including one or more of the values from the group consisting of tensile strength, E-modulus, film thickness and film turbidity,
- wherein the sensor model is bidirectional, such that specifying settable machine variables results in values of production variables that are derived therefrom or linked or associated therewith and, vice versa, specifiable production variables result in machine variables that are correlated or linked therewith, and wherein the process model is bidirectional such that specifiable production variables result in product characteristics for the film treatment that are linked therewith or abstracted therefrom or correlated therewith and, vice versa, specifiable product characteristics result in production variables that are linked therewith, correlated therewith or abstracted therefrom.
A control apparatus for manufacturing films, comprising a processor configured to provide elements comprising:
- a machine-dependent sensor model operatively coupled to a plurality of sensors monitoring a film production line, the sensor model qualitatively and quantitatively establishing a link between machine variables and process variables, wherein the machine variables are characteristics of the film production line and the process variables are characteristics of material to be processed by the film production line;
- and a production-dependent process model that qualitatively and quantitatively establishes a link between production variables and product characteristics, wherein the production variables are process variables that describe a production process of a manufacturing procedure and the product characteristics are process variables that describe a final product, wherein the sensor model and the process model are structured to interoperate together to provide settable machine variables for controlling the film production line, the machine-dependent sensor model and the production-dependent process model being mutually associated by production variables including one or more of plastics film temperature, and film tensile forces acting on a plastics film in the transverse direction and/or length direction, the sensor model linking or associating the settable machine variables with production variables, the settable machine variables including one or more machine variables comprising cooling water temperature, heating temperature of heating systems, fan speeds of a ventilator, and tensile stresses in the transverse and/or length direction of a plastics web that is to be drawn off, the process model linking or associating the production variables with product characteristics of a plastics film to be manufactured based on the settable machine variables, the product characteristics including one or more of tensile strength, E-modulus, film thickness and film turbidity, wherein the process model is portable between different film production lines.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.