Automatic machine for processing articles in the tobacco industry, and relative control method

An automatic machine for processing articles in the tobacco industry;

• the automatic machine comprising:
• at least one production line along which a number of materials are processed to produce the articles;
• a number of operating members located along the production line;
• a control unit configured for controlling data relating to operation of the automatic machine and belonging to the following classes:
• error messages resulting in automatic stoppage of the automatic machine;
• report messages;
• production counters;
• operator-intervention-request messages;
• values of analog and digital internal control variables;
• position/speed signals;
• format-change requests;
• end-of-shift requests;
• and operating parameters of the automatic machine;
• and
• a user interface device connected to the control unit and comprising a memory device configured to store information relative to the error messages resulting in automatic stoppage of the automatic machine and data belonging to at least some of said classes;
• wherein the memory device stores the time patterns of data belonging to at least some of said classes by recording any variations in the digital internal control variables and recording any significant variations in the analog internal control variables to reconstruct the time pattern of the variables;
• and
• wherein the user interface device displays, in the same graphic display, the time patterns stored in the memory device of nonhomogeneous data relating to physical quantities not directly related to one another and belonging to at least some of said classes.