Adaptive sheet caliper control system and apparatus and methods

A system for regulating the load applied to a calender apparatus by one or more actuators during the unwinding of a parent roll of sheet material and having a parent roll diameter into individual finished products of spirally wound sheet material, the system comprising:

• (a) one or more sensor interfaces for receiving sensor outputs from one or more sensors that sense a characteristic of the individual finished rolled products;
• and (b) a processing circuit configured to provide a first operating state and an adapted operating state;
• wherein the load applied to the calender apparatus by one or more actuators is varied dependent upon the diameter of the parent roll being unwound;
• wherein the processing circuit is configured to receive the sensor inputs from the one or more sensor interfaces and to determine and adjust the first operating state using an adaptive control scheme whereby the sensor inputs received by processing circuit is compared to a reference model to generate a system error and the system error is used by a parameter adjustment mechanism to determine the load to be applied to the calender apparatus by the one or more actuators in a an at least one adapted operating state;
• and
• wherein the processing circuit is further configured to cause the system to transition from the first operating state to the least one adapted operating state.

A system for regulating the load applied to a calender apparatus during the converting of a parent roll into individual finished rolled products, the system comprising:

• (a) an adaptive controller comprising a reference model, a parameter adjustment mechanism and a calender load control;
• (b) an actuator for controlling the position of at least one calender roll in a calender stack;
• (c) a caliper sensor for sensing the caliper of a calendered web;
• (d) a load sensor for sensing a force applied to a contact element by a finished rolled product when the finished rolled product is placed in between the contact element and a support surface;
• and
• (e) a log spring constant cascade controller;
• wherein the adaptive controller is in communication with the actuator and the controller is configured to control the actuator for increasing or decreasing the caliper of a web of material based upon inputs from the caliper sensor and the load sensor.