US 12,459,852 B2
Feedback control systems and methods for glass tube converting processes
Christelle Ruby Barnard, Painted Post, NY (US); Eric Michael Gross, Corning, NY (US); Joseph Michael Matusick, Corning, NY (US); Kevin Patrick McNelis, Elmira, NY (US); and Connor Thomas O'Malley, Painted Post, NY (US)
Assigned to Corning Incorporated, Corning, NY (US)
Filed by CORNING INCORPORATED, Corning, NY (US)
Filed on Aug. 10, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/885,210.
Application 17/885,210 is a continuation in part of application No. 17/746,396, filed on May 17, 2022, granted, now 12,060,295.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/192,135, filed on May 24, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0388889 A1, Dec. 8, 2022
Int. Cl. C03B 23/08 (2006.01); C03B 23/045 (2006.01); C03B 23/09 (2006.01); G05B 19/4155 (2006.01)
CPC C03B 23/08 (2013.01) [C03B 23/045 (2013.01); C03B 23/09 (2013.01); G05B 19/4155 (2013.01); G05B 2219/45009 (2013.01)] 45 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for controlling a converter for producing glass articles from glass tubes, the method comprising:
operating a converter to produce a plurality of glass articles from a plurality of glass tubes, where the converter comprises a plurality of processing stations and operating the converter comprises translating the glass tubes through each of the plurality of processing stations in succession;
providing target values for at least one attribute of the plurality of glass articles or the plurality of glass tubes during or after converting;
measuring the at least one attribute of the plurality of glass articles or the plurality of glass tubes during or after converting;
recording settings of at least one process parameter of the converter related to the at least one attribute to produce a data set comprising measured values of the at least one attribute and the settings of the at least one process parameter of the converter;
processing the data set to produce a statistical property of a distribution of the measured values of the at least one attribute;
determining an updated setting for each of the at least one process parameter from the statistical property of the distribution of the at least one attribute measured, the target values of the at least one attribute, and the settings of the at least one process parameter, wherein the updated settings of the at least one process parameter is a value of the settings that minimizes an objective control function for the at least one attribute;
adjusting each of the at least one process parameter of the converter to the updated setting; and
wherein the objective control function comprises a mean square error cost function according to the following equation:
J(k)=(G*Act(k)+Attribmeasured(k)−G*Act(k−1)−Attribtarg)TQTQ(G*Act(k)+Attribmeasured(k)−(G*Act(k−1))−Attribtarg)+(Act(k)−Act(k−1))TRTR(Act(k)−Act(k−1));
where:
J(k) is the mean square error cost function as a function of k:
k is an integer indicative of a present iteration of minimizing the mean square error cost function;
G is a matrix of sensitivity factors representative of a degree to which a change in each of the at least one process parameter produces a change each of the at least one attribute;
Attribmeasured(k) is a vector of the statistical property of the distribution of the measured values of the at least one attribute during iteration k;
Act(k) is a setting of the process parameter at iteration k;
Act(k−1) is a setting of the process parameter iteration k−1;
Attribtarg is a vector of the target values for each of the at least one attribute;
QTQ is a symmetric weighting matrix of attribute weighting factors for errors in measured values of the attributes from target values of the attributes; and
RTR is a symmetric weighting matrix of penalty factors on the change in the at least one process parameter.