Improving Computer Control of Batch Dyeing Operations: by Brent Smith, Jun Lu
Improving Computer Control of Batch Dyeing Operations: by Brent Smith, Jun Lu
Improving Computer Control of Batch Dyeing Operations: by Brent Smith, Jun Lu
Abstract
Several approaches are possible fol Table I: Suppliers of wet processing control systems and supplies.*
upgrading textile wet processing control
systems. To that end, some fundamen- Arel Kurabo
tat constraints and limitations of present ABB Latex
control systems must be alleviated. Con- ACS Macbeth
siderations for novel control algorithm: Beacon Mahlo
are presented as well as specific simu BYK-Gardner, Micro Services
lation and experimental results for fuzzy Datacolor Milton Roy
logic and for adaptive control systems Erhardt & Leimer Select Controls
are presented.
Foxboro SheLyn
Gaston County Strandberg
Introduction
Process control is one of the most International Zimmer
critical aspects of quality assurance. In Keiltex
textile operations, such as batch dyeing, *Not all suppliers in wet processing may be listed.
there are many variables which are
under the dyer’s control, but many more
which are not.9 Typically these con- ment information in a timely manner in ity as well as interfacing to a multitude
trollable and uncontrollable factors a macro or global sense. of peripheral devices, including network-
interact in a very complex way. The In CIM, individual workstations are ing, clustering, and supervisory com-
dyehouse of the future must feature connected through networking paths, puters. Microprocessor abilities to
even better process controls. and data are stored in a standardized upload and download process informa-
Traditional manual control methods in central database, accessible to all work- tion, perform real time or post process
textile processes have been automated stations. The general structure of such audits, and generate exception reports
using microprocessor systems, with a system is shown in Figure 1. and other information is currently in
corresponding improvement in process One of the most important features place in many operations.
repeatability. However, this mode of of CIM is that it provides data to mana- At recent equipment shows, dozens
control utilizes only a minuscule fraction gers for strategic decision making.7 for feasibility testing.
of the total capabilities of modern micro- This implementation, although useful in At this time, the basic concept of
processor hardware. certain ways, is incomplete because it using microprocessors for control in tex-
In an attempt to improve microproc- fails to focus on optimized hardwareand tile wet processing operations is to auto-
essor utilization, there are two avenues sensor utilization at the micro level, and mate manual procedures and control
to pursue. The most celebrated of these also because it does not address the methods of the past. This paper pre-
is the macro scale global linking of in- under utilization of the microprocessor sents some current research results in
formation referred to as Computer Inte- and other hardware capabilities per se. the development of novel control and
grated Manufacturing (CIM), to which An important, but far less travelled process models, based work of the Dye
much attention has recently been de- avenue for enhanced microprocessor Applications Research Group of N.C.
voted.14,15 In typical CIM implementa- utilization is the development of novel State University (DARG).
tions, sophisticated user interfaces, at- control strategies which fully utilize data
tractive graphics and computer net- processing capabilities at the micro State of the art controllers
working capabilities are employed to level, which use improved control Control hardware has made great
make information from machines and models and also employ improved theo- strides in recent years. The emergence
machine groups available to managers retical and empirical process models, of low cost, versatile, high speed digital
for real time and post process analysis. The key at this level is not only a better microprocessors has facilitated all man-
The focus is on the use of state of the understanding of processes but a will- ner of textile wet processing applica-
computing hardware and sensors to ingness to evaluate known control tech- tions. Microprocessor hardware has
acquire data from processes, set up nologies from other disciplines (e.g.- developed to a high state of reliability
common database formats, link islands aerospace) and to develop new textile and performance, and typically includes
of automation, and provide manage- Wet processing technology and science multichannel input/output (l/O) capabil-
Time (min)
Time (min)
(7)
30
American Dyestuff Reporter c September 1993
cludes a scaling part and a membership
function part as shown in Figure 9. The
scaling factors can be linear or non-
linear, also the membership functions
can have different shapes, eg triangle,
bell, trapezoidal, sinusoidal. Here, a
linear scaling factor and triangle mem-
bership function are used. The fuzzifier
converts numerical E and CE, such as
2.01, - 0.93, into fuzzy E and CE, such
as LN (large negative), MN (medium
negative), SN (small negative), ZE (zero),
SP (small positive), MP (medium posi-
tive) and LP (large positive), with grades
of membership µ(Ε) and µ(ΧΕ) from 0 to
1. The grade of membership values are
assigned subjectively to define the
meaning of the fuzzy values, such as
large negative.
The rule base contains the control
rules which are developed heuristically
for the particular control task and imple-
mented as a set of fuzzy conditional
statements of the form: If E is LN and
CE is ZE, then CTRL is MP. This expres-
sion defines a fuzzy relationship be- by using the fuzzy logic operations, such fuzzifier. It converts fuzzy process con-
tween error (E) and error rate (CE) and as union, intersection, complement of trol input obtained through rule evalua-
change of process control input (Ctrl) for fuzzy sets. The control rules can also be tion into numerical deterministic pro-
the particular system state. Figure 10 represented graphically as a surface in cess control input. Many algorithms can
gives the structure of the control rule the three dimensional space (Fig. 11). be used here, the center of gravity
base. Also the rules used are evaluated The defuzzifier is the inverse of the method being the most popular one.
Summary
Fundamental considerations for novel
control algorithms, as well as applica-
tions to batch dyeing process have been
presented. Several sets of experimen-
tal results for adaptive control and fuzzy
logic controllers have been evaluated
with very promising results. c c c
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the National Tex-
tile Center for financial support and
other members of the Dye Applications
Control_Simulation
Control_Simulation
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