Control system for continuous vulcanization line for manufacturing sponge rubber product

A control system for automatically controlling a continuous vulcanization line for sponge rubber materials comprising:

• an extruder for pre-forming said sponge rubber material;
• a primary heating means arranged downstream of said extruder for primary heating of the pre-formed sponge rubber material;
• a secondary heating means for finally heating the sponge rubber material downstream of said primary heating means;
• sensor means for monitoring a controlled variable correlating to an outside dimension of a sponge rubber product produced by said continuous vulcanization line;
• discrimination means for determining whether said controlled variable is within a predetermined criterion defined by designated upper and lower limits of an acceptable sponge rubber product;
• arithmetic means for deriving an offset amount of said controlled variable, offsetting from said criterion, to generate an offset amount indicative signal;
• said primary heating means including a microwave generating means for internally heating said sponge rubber material;
• and
• control means for controlling an output power of, microwave generated by said microwave generating means, in response to said offset amount indicative signal, such that the output power of said microwave generating means is increased to increasingly compensate an expansion ratio of the pre-formed sponge rubber material when the controlled variable is less than said lower limit and that the output power of said microwave generating means is decreased to decreasingly compensate said expansion ratio when the controlled variable exceeds said upper limit.