Methods to control shape uniformity in glass tube converting processes

    公开(公告)号:US11970418B2

    公开(公告)日:2024-04-30

    申请号:US17398058

    申请日:2021-08-10

    摘要: Methods for producing glass articles from glass tube includes securing a glass tube in a holder of a converter; rotating the glass tube; and passing the glass tube through processing stations, which include at least a heating station and a forming station, to form one or more features at a working end of the glass tube. An active time is an amount of time the glass tube is engaged with a heating element or a forming tool while in a processing station, and an exposure index for the processing station is the rotational speed of the glass tube multiplied by a number of heating elements or forming tools in the processing station multiplied by the active time. An absolute difference between the exposure index and a nearest integer is less than or equal to 0.30, which reduces temperature and dimensional inhomogeneity around a circumference of the glass tube.

    FEEDBACK CONTROL SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR GLASS TUBE CONVERTING PROCESSES

    公开(公告)号:US20220388889A1

    公开(公告)日:2022-12-08

    申请号:US17885210

    申请日:2022-08-10

    摘要: Methods for providing feedback control of converters for converting glass tubes to glass articles include a model predictive control framework. The methods include operating the converter, providing target values for attributes of the glass articles or glass tubes, measuring the attributes for the glass articles and glass tubes, conditioning the measurement data to remove outlier data points and calculating statistics representative of the measured attributes, and determine updated settings for one or more process parameters from the previous settings, the statistical properties, and the target values, where the updated settings are those that minimize an objective control function for the converter. The methods further include adjusting the process parameters to the updated settings. The model predictive control framework enables feedback control of the converter that compensates for disturbances that act on the process.