Polymer extrusion control system

Dynisco Instruments has recently released the OPT.TROL polymer control system for control of extrusion lines. This system is designed for small to medium-sized extrusion lines and can either be equipped onto new extrusion lines or retrofitted to upgrade existing extrusion lines.

OPT.TROL is a plug-and-play system with auto-tuning temperature control and two low-current 24 VDC outputs allowing all zones to be heat only, or heat/cool. The system has a touch-screen LCD screen with CE.NET operating system, Modbus TCP/IP ethernet communication and a 1 GB flash backup memory stick as standard.

The system can be configured with eight or up to a maximum of 40 zones of control. The temperature control was developed to allow single screw, twin screw, co-extrusion, or blown film applications to be run. Fully automatic adaptive tuning as well as conventional tuning is provided. Automated heat start-up is also a standard feature.

The operating station utilises touch-screen technology, displaying process trends as well as onboard SPC functions. The use of predefined screens and sequence control greatly simplifies set-ups for users. Recipes, screen captures and logging functions can be stored and loaded from various memory devices.