Steuerungstechnik
Manufacturers are increasingly demanding consistent mixing quality from the mixing technology, which modern control technology can guarantee. The product quality should be guaranteed both in the event of a change of personnel and frequent product changes. In addition, end users increasingly demand proof of quality from the producer in the form of a mixing protocol. With the help of control technology and regulation technology, all this is no problem. The programme sequence can be designed to suit the product, so that the mixing process always runs optimally.
Important parameters such as temperature, pressure and speed are recorded and taken into account via modern measuring sensors. The individual components of the mixer or a system, such as the drive, vacuum pump, heating, homogeniser and shut-off valves, can be addressed individually by the control system. This ensures that the mixing process is optimised from a procedural point of view. For example, it is possible to control the agitator speed depending on the product viscosity or shear sensitivity, and the vacuum pump is switched on to degas the agitated material or to suck in additional mixing components.
It is also possible and sensible to integrate dosing, emptying and cleaning into the programme sequence so that the operating personnel do not have to be constantly at the machine or system. This means that several mixers can be operated or other work can be carried out at the same time.
This saves time and money. Phases of the programme sequence that are important for the operator can be signalled visually and/or acoustically. The measured value recording also enables optimum safety technology, which, for example, switches off the agitator if the temperature exceeds the permissible limit.
Operating the control technology
The operation of the control system does not require any programming knowledge and is usually menu-driven via a touch panel. The current process parameters (e.g. speed, temperature and pressure) are always shown on the display. The visualisation of the main components of a system thus provides a good overview of the process sequence. The process can be run both programme-controlled and manually in manual mode.
Adaptation of the control technology
The process programmes can be easily adapted to changed requirements at any time. This is important, for example, in the field of research and development. Via an interface, the current parameters can be transferred to a PC for external data acquisition. The basic programming of the programme control is customer-specific. The programme sequences can be created for different products, saved, modified and called up again at any time. Changes in the programme sequence can be made by the operator himself at the touch panel. Several user levels with password protection can be set up.
It is also possible to set up a remote maintenance function so that in the event of problems, a programmer has direct access after being enabled by the system operator.