Automated Set Point Change of an Industrial Glass Feeder

A glass feeder in the container glass production connects a forming machine to the glass furnace. The molten glass flows through the feeder and using numerous gas burners a desired temperature profile is regulated using feedback controllers and temperature measurements. Since this temperature profile depends on product specific parameters, it has to be adjusted in some situations e.g. during product changes. These adjustments often require big set point changes. However the feedback controllers are designed with a good disturbance reaction but show a slow response to set point changes. Consequently set point changes are usually operated in manual mode. This treatise describes the automation of set point changes of an industrial glass feeder. First a model is proposed, consisting of multiple 1st order partial differential equations with coupling in the boundary conditions. Then a feedforward control approach is presented allowing for the calculation of the control inputs from the trajectories of an equal number of system outputs. Finally the implementation of the approach at an industrial glass feeder is described and experimental results of an automated set point change are included.