Quality Improvement
Advanced Control Algorithm: Fast Tune Technology
Opportunity:
A high-performance customer was seeking the best temperature controller that would complement their tooling to optimize part quality.
Solution:
By using Pulse® temperature control system with Fast Tune Technology, the critical dimension on a part is being hit 12% more often, resulting in significant part quality improvement.
How does the Pulse do this?
Improved part quality is a result of Fast Heat’s Advanced Control Algorithm.
While most controls react to every change in temperature with a standard PID control algorithm, Pulse’s Fast Tune Technology constantly monitors changes, summarizes them and looks for trends. Only when trends are out of our built-in ranges will we react with an appropriate amount of power. As simple as this sounds, years of knowledge about thermal systems combined with advanced control hardware allow the Pulse to be seamless in its operation.
Energy Management
Energy Management Algorithm
Opportunity:
A high-volume customer was looking for a way to improve the power balancing in the hot runner control system.
Solution:
Installing a Pulse® control with the Energy Management Algorithm reduced the wide power demands that are normally seen with other standard controls.
How does the Pulse control do this?
Most hot runner controls apply power on a zone-by-zone basis. The Pulse with Energy Management Technology not only applies power when appropriate but also manages to apply power on a set of zones one at a time.
The following charts are actual KW power measurements from the power input to the control with the same tool and production run capacity. Notice on the first chart that a standard controller varies anywhere between 1 – 12KW of total power. In contrast, on the second chart, the Pulse only varies 3 – 5KW of total power.
Chart 1: Standard Temperature Control
Chart 2: Pulse Temperature Control
Pulse’s Energy Management Algorithm achieved 132% less variation in KW than standard temperature controls.
Downtime Reduction
Sensor Protection Circuitry: Active Thermocouple Protection
Opportunity:
A customer with a critical application was looking for a method of protecting sensors from failing prematurely.
Solution:
Placing a Pulse® temperature control system with Active Thermocouple Protection significantly reduced the premature failures from occurring in the tool, as compared to a standard temperature control.
During the production run, Pulse’s ATP circuit protected the thermocouples from failing by detecting and opening its protection circuit before the sensor and / or control zone was destroyed.
How does the Pulse do this?
Every Pulse control system comes equipped with our patented Active Thermocouple Protection circuit. This circuit ensures that the junction in the thermocouple is not compromised due to a poor or missing ground connection between the tool and the controller.
The advanced protection does more than what conventional fuses do on some standard control’s thermocouple input. ATP uses fast, advanced technology to temporarily open and isolate the specific zone, sensing excessive voltage and immediately preventing damaging voltage from reaching the sensitive thermocouple junction and temperature control circuit. At best, fuses only blow at the same time the thermocouple junction and / or control circuit fail.
Click here for more information about Fast Heat’s Active Thermocouple Protection
Sensor Interference
Sensor Interference Protection: Noise Isolation Circuitry
Opportunity:
A customer who recently installed several new electric injection molding machines was experiencing sporadic temperature fluctuations and some strange board failures in other auxiliary equipment.
Solution:
Installing the noise isolation circuitry in the Pulse® control eliminated the stray power spikes being introduced by the new electric machines.
How does the Pulse do this?
The introduction of electric machines puts a significant amount of stray electrical spikes back onto the power lines in the entire plant, especially when standard power filtering is not installed on those machines. In most cases, the stray voltage is introduced through the very sensitive connections where the sensors are located.
At best, most controls see temperature variations, while some fail catastrophically by literally blowing up their circuits.
The Pulse’s unique high-voltage noise isolation circuitry completely isolates any stray voltages seen between the controller and the thermocouple input. Acting like a security gate, only the important thermocouple signals are let through and all other high, erroneous voltages are kept out of the Pulse.
The result is smooth, accurate control, no matter the environment.
