Wet End Process Control and Monitoring

Improved wet end process knowledge at a fibre board manufacturing plant reduces wastage, improves product consistency and increases output.

Key Benefits

Wet End Process Control and Monitoring

Improved product consistency Reduced wastage and increased output Automated line startups Automatic formula changes Central data capture and production reporting Better understanding of the process

The plant had traditionally suffered from consistency problems because each operator worked slightly differently, both in terms of normal running and in response to fault conditions. As a result, the product consistency varied from shift to shift.

In order to determine the automatic control algorithm to use, all of the controllers and a set of key variables were monitored. This allowed a better understanding of the process to be gained and the best control algorithm to be determined.

As an initial check on the algorithm, the operators were provided with suggested setpoints for the controllers which could be altered as required. As confidence grew in the system, this stage was removed and the setpoints were sent directly to the controllers at the appropriate stages in the control sequence.

The system has been further modified to monitor the flow rates for reductions, automatically altering the control parameters of the other flows to compensate and producing alarms on fault conditions.

If you have a wet end application and would like more information please contact us.