PRODUCTION SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF OPERATION OF PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- MX · MX
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- ATLINE APS
- Filing Date
- 2026-04-10
- Publication Date
- 2026-05-04
Abstract
Description
[0001] PRODUCTION SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF OPERATING PRODUCTION SYS¬
[0002] TEMS
[0003] Technical field
[0004] The present disclosure concerns production systems and methods of operating production systems. Particularly, it concerns production systems comprising drying means and an optical analysis system.
[0005] Background
[0006] In the field of production systems comprising drying means for drying a product, it may be desirable to add an analysis system to the production system to allow analysis of the product being dried. A sample of the product may be taken manually by an operator, and the analysis output may be recorded by the operator. This may allow the operator to assess the moisture content of the product being dried, and potentially manually adjust the drying degree applied by the drying means to the product. This allows some degree of optimisation of the drying process but requires significant manual efforts, and the adjustment of the degree of drying may be subject to human error.
[0007] On above background, it is an object of the present disclosure to provide more efficient drying of bulk products.
[0008] In a first aspect, embodiments provide a production system comprising: drying means, the drying means being configured to dry at least part of a bulk product in response to a drying control signal, an optical analysis system, the optical analysis system being configured to conduct an optical analysis of a material sample of the bulk product, and to generate first optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a first parameter, a production system controller, the production system controller comprising a drying means controller configured to at least indirectly provide a drying control signal to the drying means, and an auxiliary controller comprising a data communication interface configured for data communication with at least the drying means, the production system controller, and the optical analysis system, wherein the auxiliary controller is configured to: receive and / or store first predetermined data, receive the first optical analysis data, receive the drying control signal, generate drying offset data on the basis of at least the first predetermined data, the first optical analysis data, and the drying control signal, and provide the drying offset data to the drying means.
[0009] In a second aspect, embodiments provide a method of operating a production system, the production system comprising drying means, an optical analysis system, a production system controller, and an auxiliary controller, the method comprising the steps of:
[0010] - the drying means drying at least part of a bulk product in response to a drying control signal,
[0011] - the optical analysis system conducting an optical analysis of a material sample of the bulk product, generating first optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a first parameter, and
[0012] - the auxiliary controller: o receiving and / or storing first predetermined data, o receiving the first optical analysis data, o receiving the drying control signal, o generating drying offset data on the basis of at least the first predetermined data, the first optical analysis data, and the drying control signal, and o at least indirectly providing the drying offset data to the drying means. In a third aspect, embodiments provide a method of operating a production system, the production system comprising: drying means, the drying means being configured to dry at least part of a bulk product in response to a drying control signal, an optical analysis system, the optical analysis system being configured to conduct an optical analysis of a material sample of the bulk product, and to generate first optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a first parameter, a production system controller, the production system controller comprising a drying means controller configured to at least indirectly provide a drying control signal to the drying means, wherein the method comprises the steps of: providing an auxiliary controller, providing data communication between the production system controller and the auxiliary controller, providing data communication between the optical analysis system and the auxiliary controller, providing data communication between the drying means and the auxiliary controller, and wherein the auxiliary controller is configured to: receive and / or store first predetermined data, receive the first optical analysis data, receive the drying control signal, generate drying offset data on the basis of at least the first predetermined data, the first optical analysis data, the drying control signal, and provide the drying offset data to the drying means.
[0013] Accordingly, embodiments of the first, second, and third aspects provide more efficient drying of bulk products by provision of the auxiliary controller and its ability to provide the drying offset data to the drying means. Moreover, the drying offset data being generated by the auxiliary controller on the basis of at least the first predetermined data and the first optical analysis data, allows for more precise control of the drying means, even with the production system controller not having such capabili- ties. It should be understood that embodiments mentioned in relation to the first aspect may be combined with embodiments mentioned in relation to the second aspect and vice versa. Similarly, embodiments mentioned in relation to the first aspect may be combined with embodiments mentioned in relation to the third aspect and vice versa. Finally, embodiments mentioned in relation to the second aspect may be combined with embodiments mentioned in relation to the third aspect and vice versa.
[0014] In some embodiments, the bulk product comprises human and / or animal nutrients. In some embodiments, the bulk product is in the form of a powder, grains or pellets, or it may be a liquid, a sludge or a slurry. When the bulk product comprises human and / or animal nutrients, it is particularly advantageous for the first predetermined data to comprise predetermined first nutrient data. In this case, the auxiliary controller may generate the drying offset data on the basis of at least the predetermined first nutrient data, the first optical analysis data, and the drying control signal. This allows the auxiliary controller to optimise the drying process with respect to the predetermined nutrient data and the optical analysis. Moreover, the predetermined first nutrient data may comprise a nutrient interval for the drying bulk product, such as, e.g., an acceptance interval for fat and / or protein concentration, and the first parameter may comprise a fat and / or protein concentration. This allows the auxiliary controller to generate the drying offset data so as to have the drying means dry the bulk product to a degree that results in a fat and / or protein level near, e.g., the minimum accepted fat and / or protein concentration in the dried bulk product. As the reduction of moisture concentration by the drying means generally increases the fat and / or protein concentration, controlling the drying means to reach a (near) minimum accepted fat and / or protein content allows a minimum of drying of the bulk product. As controlled drying processes generally consumes energy, energy consumption may be minimized by embodiments of present disclosure.
[0015] In some embodiments, the first predetermined data comprises an acceptable moisture concentration interval, and the first parameter comprises a moisture concentration. In this case, the auxiliary controller may be configured to generate drying offset data that, when provided to the drying means, controls the drying means to dry the bulk product to reach the maximum accepted moisture concentration. This in turn allows for minimum drying of the bulk product and thus minimum energy consumption.
[0016] The first predetermined data and the first parameter may comprise a concentration of moisture, protein, fat, hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, amines, and / or sucrose / - glycose.
[0017] The auxiliary controller may be configured to provide the drying offset data to the drying means in addition to the drying control signal, i.e. , as a correction to the drying control signal. The auxiliary controller may also be configured to provide the drying offset data to the drying means as a substitution for the drying control signal, i.e., the auxiliary controller may be configured to intercept the drying control signal so as to not provide it to the drying means, and to provide the drying offset data to the drying means.
[0018] In some embodiments, the optical analysis system comprises at least one near-infrared spectrometer, wherein the near-infrared spectrometer is configured to operate with Near-Infrared Reflection (NIR). A near-infrared spectrometer allows for relatively fast and inexpensive generation of optical analysis data for the first parameter, wherein the first parameter may be a moisture concentration, a fat concentration and / or a protein concentration.
[0019] In some embodiments, the optical analysis system is configured to analyse the material sample in sample containers through a transparent bottom part of the sample container. Such sample containers may be open-sided containers, wherein the open side allows for loading and unloading the material sample, and wherein the side arranged opposite to the open side is the transparent bottom part, through which the material sample in the container may be analysed optically by means of the optical analysis system, e.g., comprising a near-infrared spectrometer.
[0020] In some embodiments, the first predetermined data comprises data representing a first desired value for the first paramenter, wherein the optical analysis is configured to provide second optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a second parameter, and wherein the auxiliary controller is further configured to: receive and / or store second predetermined data for the second parameter, receive second optical analysis data representing the result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least the second parameter, generate a predicted value for the second parameter on the basis of at least the first desired value, generate drying offset data on the basis of at least the predicted value, the second optical analysis data, and the second predetermined data.
[0021] In such embodiments, the auxiliary controller is able to generate drying offset data on the basis of at least the first predetermined data, the first optical analysis data, the predicted value, and the second predermined data. This in turn, allows optimisation of drying means control with respect to at least the first and second parameter, providing increased optimisation of the drying means and potentially its energy consumption. Moreover, by generating the predicted value for the second parameter on the basis of at least the first optical analysis data, and the second optical analysis data, the auxiliary controller is able to generate a drying offset data leading to even more efficient drying of the bulk product, while simultaneously taking into account the first and second predetermined data.
[0022] The first and / or second predetermined data may generally comprise desired minima and / or maxima for the first and / or second parameter.
[0023] The first and second parameters may be correlated parameters. Moreover, drying of the bulk product may have an effect on both the first and second parameter.
[0024] It is to be understood, that the first parameter is a parameter different from the second parameter.
[0025] In some embodiments, the first parameter comprises fat and / or protein concentration. This allows generation of drying offset data leading to particularly efficient control of the drying means, as fat and / or protein concentration in the bulk product may represent the dominant contribution to the overall production cost and energy consumption in the process of generating the bulk product. Moreover, it may desireable to decrease drying of the bulk product to achieve a lower fat and / or protein concentration if the second predetermined data allows this, even if it would result in a less desirable value for the second parameter in the dried bulk product, because a relatively high fat and / or protein concentration is usually associated with a relatively high overall energy consumtion and environmental impact.
[0026] In some embodiments, the second parameter comprises moisture concentration, which is desirable as it allows the auxiliary controller to generate a drying offset data leading to, e.g., a minimum fat and / or protein concentration without exceeding the maximum moisture concentration allowed in the dried bulk product leading to reduced energy consumption.
[0027] In some embodiments, the production system comprises an automated sampling arrangement configured to automatically collect the material sample from a sampling postion of the drying means, and preferably provide the material sample to the optical analysis system. This allows for an increased level of automation and efficiency of the production system.
[0028] The automated sampling arrangement may further comprise a grinding system arranged for grinding the material sample prior to providing the material sample to the optical analysis system. This is particularly useful when the bulk material is in the form of grains or pellets, where a finer grinding of the material sample prior to the optical analysis of the material sample by means of the optical analysis system provides a more precise and homogeneous analysis and thereby first optical analysis data from the material sample.
[0029] The production system may further comprise a product sample packaging arrangement, wherein the sampling arrangement is configured to provide a material sample collected by means of the automated sampling arrangement from the sampling positions to the product packaging arrangement, and wherein the product packaging arrangement is configured to provide sample packages comprising an individual material sample, and wherein the production system comprises control means adapted for transferring data identifying the material sample to a labelling arrangement for labelling said sample package with the corresponding data identifying the material sample. Such sample packages may be used for later tracking and tracing of possible deviations in the production of the dried bulk material.
[0030] In some embodiments, the drying control signal comprises a target drying current, wherein the auxiliary controller is configured to receive at least the target drying current. This allows for particularly convenient and simple imlentation of the auxiliary controller in the production system. Moreover, the target current is relatively simple to read-off, e.g., by way of an amperimeter or an induction coil arranged around a wire carrying the target current.
[0031] In some embodiments, the drying offset data comprises a drying offset current, wherein the drying offset current is preferentially generated at least on the basis of the target drying current. This allows for particularly convenient and simple implementation of the auxiliary controller in the production system. The drying offset current may be provided to the drying means in addition to the target drying current, or as a substitution for the target drying current.
[0032] In some embodiments, the auxiliary controller is configured to: receive at least the first drying control data and the first optical analysis data at a first point in time, receive at least third drying control data and third optical analysis data at a third point in time, and generate drying offset data on the basis of at least first and third drying control data, and first and third optical analysis data.
[0033] By provision of the auxiliary controller generating the drying offset data as in present embodiments, the drying offset data allows even more efficient control of the drying means as it is able to take drying of the bulk product over time into account. Moreover, it may allow the auxiliary controller to assess the actual drying performance of the drying means, and to take this into account when generating the drying offset data. In some embodiments, the auxiliary controller is a stand-alone device comprising a power supply separate from the power supply of the production system controller. This allows an even more convenient implementation of the auxiliary controller in the production system. It further increases the ease with which it may be added to an existing production system.
[0034] In some embodiments, the first optical analysis data is comprised in the second optical analysis data, or vice versa.
[0035] Detailed description of the drawings
[0036] Fig. 1 illustrates a production system 1 for a bulk product, such as dry food for animals provided as extruded pellets as the final product. However, production lines for other bulk products could be included alternatively or additionally. The production system 1 comprises an auxiliary controller 2, the auxiliary controller being a standalone device having its own separate auxiliary controller power supply 3.
[0037] The production system 1 of Fig. 1 includes an optional mixer 5 with an inlet for water 6 and a first ingredient 7 and a second ingredient 8. More inlets for ingredients for the mixer 5 could be envisaged.
[0038] From the mixer 5 the bulk product, e.g., in the form of a paste or a moist mass is conveyed to the optional extruder 9 where pellets may be formed, e.g., by extrusion and cutting. The pellets are dried by, e.g., a hot air flow in the following drying means 10 where after the pellets are optionally cooled in the optional cooler 11. The final bulk product in form of dried and cooled pellets are now ready for packaging (not shown). The production system 1 is provided with an automated sampling device situated at sampling position 13 after the mixer 5 after the dryer 10 and after the cooler 11 , respectively. After the cooler 11 , optional near-infrared inline sensors 23 for conducting, e.g., a continuous monitoring of the contents of the final bulk product are installed. Moisture, concentration of fat or protein but also concentrations of hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, amines or sucroseAglycose may be monitored by them 23. The automated sampling devices 13 are operated by the production system controller 24 to extract material samples of the bulk material flow to the sampling arrangement 12, which directs the material samples to the sample divider 14, which is operated by the production system controller 24 to direct the material sample to the grinder 15, to the packaging apparatus 25 or to divide the material sample between the grinder 15 and the packaging apparatus 25. The automated sampling devices 13 are adapted to collect a material sample of a predefined volume, e.g. by means of using a sampling cup which is filled to a predefined level a predefined number of times, e.g. one or two, in order to collect a material sample.
[0039] For material samples directed to the grinder 15, where the content of the material sample is grinded to a uniform fine-grained material that is suitable for the following NIR (Near-Infrared) spectroscopy. The mass of the material sample is found by means of the weight 15 to which the material sample is transferred from the grinder 15, and the determined mass is provided to the production system controller 24 in order to calculate the density of the material sample as the volume is fixed from the automated sampling device 13. In case the detected mass is outside of a predefined range, the material sample is discharged and a new sample from the same sampling position / automated sampling device 13 is requested from the control system 24. From the weight 16, the grinded material sample is loaded onto a sample container 17 having a transparent bottom part and a container handling apparatus in the form of a robotic arm 18 is arranged to transfer the sample container 17 to an analysis top-plate of one of the, in this case, two Near-Infrared Spectrometers 19, 21 of the optical analysis system, where an optical analysis of the material sample in the sample container 17 by means of NIR through the transparent bottom part of the sample container 17 is conducted.
[0040] The processer of the optical analysis system then provides first optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a first parameter, in this case a fat and protein concentration. From the same optical analysis, the processor generates second optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a second parameter, in this case moisture concentration. The first and second optical analysis data is transferred from the optical analysis system to the auxiliary controller 2. The auxiliary controller 2 has stored in its memory first and second predetermined data for the first and second parameters, which in this case comprises a desired minimum fat and protein concentration, and a desired maximum moisture concentration, respectively.
[0041] The processor of the auxiliary controller 2 then generates a predicted value for the second parameter (moisture concentration) on the basis of at least the first desired value (the minimum fat and protein concentration). This may be done by, e.g., simple linear regression. If the predicted moisture concentration is below the maximum moisture concentration, the auxiliary controller 2 then generates drying offset data in order to control the drying means 10 to dry the bulk product to achieve the minimum fat and protein concentration, taking into account a received drying control signal from the production system controller 24. As such, the auxiliary controller 2 in that way generates the drying offset data on the basis of at least the first predetermined data, the first optical analysis data, predicted value, the second optical analysis data, the second predetermined data, and the drying control signal.
[0042] In the embodiment of Fig. 1 , the drying control signal from the production system controller 24 comprises a target drying current and the auxiliary controller 2 is configured to receive at least the target drying current. The target current is read-off by analysing the signal from an induction coil arranged around a stripped wire carrying the target current.
[0043] The auxiliary controller 2 in Fig. 1 stores the first drying control data from the production system controller 24 and the first optical analysis data from either of the NIR spectrometers 19,21 of the optical analysis system at a first point in time. Then later at a third point in time, the auxiliary controller 2 receives third drying control data from the production system controller 24, and third optical analysis data from the NIR spectrometers 19,21 . It then generates drying offset data on the basis of at least first and third drying control data, and first and third optical analysis data. This allows the auxiliary controller 2 to assess the actual drying performance of the drying means, and to take this into account when generating the drying offset data. For material samples directed by the sample divider 14 to the packaging apparatus 25, data identifying the material sample are transferred from the production system controller 24 to the labelling apparatus 26 so that a package of a material sample may be labelled by the labelling apparatus with an identification of, e.g., sampling position 13, time of sampling, end product type and / or other data, such as data from the analysis output from the NIR Spectrometer 19, 21 from an analysis of a corresponding material sample, in particular of a material sample divided by the sample divider 14 from the material sample in the package. Such packaged material samples may be useful for later tracking and tracing of possible deviations in the produc- tion of the final bulk material.
[0044] List of reference numbers
[0045] 1 Production system
[0046] 2 Auxiliary controller
[0047] 3 Auxiliary controller power supply
[0048] 5 Mixer
[0049] 6 Water inlet for mixer
[0050] 7 Inlet to mixer for first ingredients
[0051] 8 Inlet to mixer for second ingredients
[0052] 9 Extruder
[0053] 10 Drying means
[0054] 11 Cooler
[0055] 12 Automated sampling arrangement
[0056] 13 Sampling position
[0057] 14 Sample divider
[0058] 15 Grinder
[0059] 16 Weight
[0060] 17 Sample container
[0061] 18 Container handling apparatus
[0062] 19 First Near-Infrared Spectrometer
[0063] 20 First camera
[0064] 21 Second Near-Infrared Spectrometer
[0065] 22 Second camera
[0066] 23 Near-Infrared inline sensor
[0067] 24 Production system controller
[0068] 25 Packaging apparatus
[0069] 26 Labelling apparatus
Claims
Claims1. A production system comprising: drying means, the drying means being configured to dry at least part of a bulk product in response to a drying control signal, an optical analysis system, the optical analysis system being configured to conduct an optical analysis of a material sample of the bulk product, and to generate first optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a first parameter, a production system controller, the production system controller comprising a drying means controller configured to at least indirectly provide a drying control signal to the drying means, and an auxiliary controller comprising a data communication interface configured for data communication with at least the drying means, the production system controller, and the optical analysis system, wherein the auxiliary controller is configured to: receive and / or store first predetermined data, receive the first optical analysis data, receive the drying control signal, generate drying offset data on the basis of at least the first predetermined data, the first optical analysis data, and the drying control signal, and provide the drying offset data to the drying means.
2. The production system according to claim 1 , wherein the first predetermined data comprises data representing a first desired value for the first paramenter, wherein the optical analysis is configured to provide second optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a second parameter, and wherein the auxiliary controller is further configured to: receive and / or store second predetermined data for the second parameter, receive second optical analysis data representing the result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least the second parameter, generate a predicted value for the second parameter on the basis of at least the first desired value,generate drying offset data on the basis of at least the predicted value, the second optical analysis data, and the second predetermined data.
3. The production system according to claim 2, wherein the first parameter comprises fat and / or protein concentration.
4. The production system according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising an automated sampling arrangement configured to automatically collect the material sample from a sampling postion of the drying means.
5. The production system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the drying control signal comprises a target drying current, and wherein the auxiliary controller is configured to receive at least the target drying current.
6. The production system according to claim 6, wherein the drying offset data comprises a drying offset current, and wherein the drying offset current is generated at least on the basis of the target drying current.
7. The production system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the auxiliary controller is configured to: receive at least the first drying control data and the first optical analysis data at a first point in time, receive at least third drying control data and third optical analysis data at a third point in time, and generate drying offset data on the basis of at least first and third drying control data, and first and third optical analysis data.
8. The production system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the auxiliary controller is a stand-alone device comprising a power supply separate from the power supply of the production system controller.
9. A method of operating a production system, the production system comprising drying means, an optical analysis system, a production system controller, and an auxiliary controller, the method comprising the steps of:- the drying means drying at least part of a bulk product in response to a drying control signal,- the optical analysis system conducting an optical analysis of a material sample of the bulk product, generating first optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a first parameter, and- the auxiliary controller: o receiving and / or storing first predetermined data, o receiving the first optical analysis data, o receiving the drying control signal, o generating drying offset data on the basis of at least the first predetermined data, the first optical analysis data, and the drying control signal, and o at least indirectly providing the drying offset data to the drying means.
10. A method of operating a production system, the production system comprising: drying means, the drying means being configured to dry at least part of a bulk product in response to a drying control signal, an optical analysis system, the optical analysis system being configured to conduct an optical analysis of a material sample of the bulk product, and to generate first optical analysis data representing a result of the optical analysis of the material sample for at least a first parameter, a production system controller, the production system controller comprising a drying means controller configured to at least indirectly provide a drying control signal to the drying means, wherein the method comprises the steps of: providing an auxiliary controller, providing data communication between the production system controller and the auxiliary controller, providing data communication between the optical analysis system and the auxiliary controller, providing data communication between the drying means and the auxiliary controller, and wherein the auxiliary controller is configured to:receive and / or store first predetermined data, receive the first optical analysis data, receive the drying control signal, generate drying offset data on the basis of at least the first predetermined data, the first optical analysis data, the drying control signal, and provide the drying offset data to the drying means.