New Enhancement to Smartconnex Controls Software Smoothes
Material Flow for Improved Feeder Accuracy on Single Screw Feeders
Especially at low feed rates, single screw feeders can exhibit an unsteady feed rate within one revolution of the screw, resulting in mass flow pulsation. Spiral or full flight single screw feeders exhibit this pulsation more commonly than other screw configurations.
Mechanical changes to the screw can improve the smoothness of the flow, but there is always some residual pulsation. The smoother the material flow, the better the feeder accuracy that can be attained.
The new speed modulation algorithm produces increased accuracy at feed rates below 60 screw rpm by recording the periodical pulsation (see graph above) and adjusting the screw speed so as to compensate (below).
As can be seen in the graph above, massflow remains consistent throughout the feeding cycle. During refill mode (volumetric phase), pictured in the center of the graph, the software continues to compensate effectively for screw pusations.
The patented screw speed modulation algorithm is in the current software release of K-Tron's Smart Control Module (SCM). The SCM is at the heart of K-Tron's SmartConnex feeder control environment.