US 6,675,073 B2 · System and method for tuning the weight control of a flow of material

Abstract

The present invention includes a system and method for fine tuning the process of controlling the weight of a flow of material, such as a rod of material in a production facility. A control actuator in communication with a PID controller and PID control loop is used to change the unit volume of the flow so as to maintain a target unit weight. A measurement device captures unit weight measurements of the flow at intervals over the length of the flow. A change is introduced to a control actuator while the PID controller and PID control loop are disabled, and appropriate weight measurements of the flow are continually captured along with the control actuator's “feed back” position; a process that may be repeated several times. Once sufficient weight measurement data has been captured, the data is loaded into an optimization program that outputs optimized controlled parameters that may be used by the PID controller and control loop to better control the weight of the flow of material.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A system for measuring and controlling the weight of a flow of material, said device comprising:

(a) At least one measurement device adapted to capture unit weight measurements of said flow at intervals over the length of said flow;
(b) a control actuator adapted to change the unit volume of said flow in order to maintain a target unit weight of said flow;
(c) at least one PID controller in communication with at least one PID control loop, said control loop utilizing at least a proportional portion and an integral portion thereof to detect deviations between setpoint weight values and measured weight values at points along said flow of material and to automatically adjust said control actuator in response thereto;
and
(d) optimization software for receiving compiled weight measurement data collected from a period prior to, and subsequently of, one or more changes to an input of said controller, said optimization software adapted to use said compiled weight measurement data to calculate optimized parameters for allowing said PID controller and said PID control loop to more quickly and accurately adjust said control actuator to eliminate said deviations.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for tuning the weight control of a flow of material

Life of this patent

System and method for tuning the weight control of a flow of material

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23