Production Line Furnace Temperature Control During Stoppages
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current production line systems face significant energy wastage due to unnecessary heating of thermal means, such as furnaces, during stoppages, which can be unpredictable and prolonged, leading to increased energy consumption and production delays.
Innovation Solution
An automatic learning system that utilizes past data to optimize the temperature adjustment of thermal means, allowing for precise lowering and raising of temperatures during stoppages, ensuring the thermal means reach the setpoint temperature quickly and efficiently when production resumes, thereby minimizing energy usage and reducing downtime.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the furnace is kept at production temperature during stoppages, then the thermal means are ready for immediate production resumption, but energy consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by recording past stoppage data and predicting future stoppage durations. Based on these predictions, it proactively adjusts the furnace temperature - lowering it during predicted stoppages and pre-heating before predicted production resumption. This eliminates the need to maintain full temperature continuously, significantly reducing energy consumption while ensuring readiness when production actually resumes.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the temperature is lowered during stoppages, then energy consumption is reduced, but production resumption is delayed due to reheating time
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses historical data to predict when production will resume and initiates pre-heating operations before the actual resumption time. This preliminary action ensures the furnace reaches the required temperature by the time production restarts, eliminating delays while still allowing temperature reduction during confirmed stoppages to save energy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors actual stoppage durations and compares them with predicted durations. This feedback loop allows the system to refine its predictions and adjust temperature control strategies accordingly, optimizing the balance between energy savings and production readiness based on actual operational patterns.
3Ease of operation
If manual temperature control is used during stoppages, then operational flexibility is maintained, but response time and precision are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-service by automatically analyzing past stoppage data, predicting future stoppages, and executing temperature adjustments without manual intervention. This automated decision-making process responds immediately to predicted stoppages and resumptions, providing both speed and precision that manual control cannot achieve, while operators retain overall system oversight.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables energy savings by anticipating and managing temperature changes in real-time, ensuring the thermal means are operational when needed, thus reducing overall energy consumption and maintaining production efficiency without impacting normal operations.
Implementation Method 1
a heating station, consisting of at least one furnace... making it possible for said film to retract and to assume the external shape of the batch of products
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a method for managing a main module (1) of a production line, with said main module (1) being equipped with thermal means that operate in production at a setpoint temperature (1000), method in which during production, when there is a break in production continuity at said main module (1), the temperature of said thermal means is lowered, and then their temperature is reset until said setpoint temperature (1000) is reached. Advantageously, at least data from a past event comprising at least one temperature rise time of said thermal means from a first temperature to a second temperature is recorded, and based on said data, the temperature of said thermal means is adapted automatically to reach said setpoint temperature (1000), at the latest when the production continuity resumes at said main module (1). The object of the invention is also a corresponding management device.