 cess
Control System
American
Kuhne offers a Computerized Extrusion Supervisory System,
called AKcess,
that takes advantage of the control and communication capabilities
of modern discrete controllers and drives combined with
the ease of use of PC based HMI software. The system uses
modern auto-tuning temperature controllers, pressure indicators,
and digital AC Vector drives, all with communication capabilities.
They are all connected to a Pentium touch-screen computer
running your choice of any major SCADA packages on the latest
Windows (TM) Operating System.
The
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System, (SCADA)
packages, provide for a customized graphical interface for
process monitoring and control, real-time and historical
trending, recipe functions, alarm management, various reports,
SPC capabilities, and DDE data exchange. The software communicates
to external devices through I/O drivers. Drivers are usually
available for popular discrete controllers and drives, so
very little specialized programming is required for the
typical system. Windows™ based systems can easily be networked
together and to an office computer.
Advantages
- Troubleshooting
is straightforward.
For instance, if a temperature control problem occurs
on a barrel zone, the controller can be simply swapped
for another, just as is presently done with a discrete
system. No special knowledge is required.
- Computer
problems are also solved simply. The computer
can be shut down or rebooted with the line running with
no effect or loss of control. Which leads to the next
advantage - that the system is basically unaffected by
computer failure.
- Flexibility
of upgrading or changing. Temporary downstream
equipment additions or changes can be done without involving
the computer. Control components can be added and discrete
controls can be changed, and the HMI configuration changed
easily if and when desired.
Advanced
Features
There
is no compromise in features offered by AKcess.
The graphics capability of the HMI software allows an intuitive,
pictorial presentation of extruder data. All barrel and
die temperatures, drive speed and load, pressure, and other
critical data are shown, and can be changed simply by touching
the "button" on screen. The system has powerful data handling
and management, with real-time and historical trending.
Reports can be easily customized, since the system uses
an Excel™ spreadsheet. A fully featured SPC package is available,
and recipe storage is practically unlimited. All data is
available to other Windows programs through DDE, and the
system is fully compatible with Windows networks.
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