Controlling the Flow of a Solid using a Feeder with Integral PID Control Capabilities
Measuring the Mass Flow Rate of a Solid Material can be hard enough, but when a process needs a Controlled Flow Rate as well, this can be really difficult. Controlling the Flow Rate in a process requires a PID control loop, where the input is an accurately measured flow rate and the controlling device is able to provide a fast change when an input change is noted, without overshoot or undershoot. In most industrial plants, these types of flow controls are typically done by a PLC. These same PLC's usually take in all of the inputs of the process and compute all of the outputs to all of the devices in the process. The loads on these PLC's can vary greatly and typically result in a long scan times that can adversely affect the PLC's ability to provide the best PID control loop. This makes the control of the loop inaccurate, slow, and creates difficulty when trying to tune the loop to obtain the highest degree of control. The best way to get around these issues i...