METHOD FOR OPERATING A CONTAINER TREATMENT SYSTEM AND CONTAINER TREATMENT SYSTEM WITH OPTIMIZED PARAMETERS

Abstract

A method of operating a container treatment system, wherein a plurality of parameters of the container treatment system, which are characteristic for the treatment of containers in the container treatment system, are variable and wherein the parameters are each linked to at least one value characteristic of the containers to be treated, wherein for each parameter a plurality of reference parameter values are stored in a storage device, wherein at least one characteristic value of the containers to be treated is entered at a user interface and, on the basis of this entry and the stored reference parameter values, a combination of parameter values for the parameters is calculated.

Claims

1. A method of operating a container treatment system, wherein a plurality of parameters of the container treatment system, which are characteristic for the treatment of containers in the container treatment system, are variable and wherein the parameters are each linked to at least one value characteristic of the containers to be treated, wherein for each parameter a plurality of reference parameter values are stored in a storage device for each parameter, wherein at least one characteristic value of the containers to be treated is entered at a user interface and a combination of parameter values for at least two of the parameters is calculated on the basis of this entry and the stored reference parameter values.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one parameter is regulated depending on the calculation performed.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein during the treatment of the containers at least one actual parameter value of a parameter is measured.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the combination of parameter values is calculated on the basis of the characteristic value entered at the user interface taking into account the parameter actual value as a fixed parameter value.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein when calculating the combination of parameter values an optimization for at least one parameter is possible.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein for at least one parameter, upper and/or lower limits are specified for a parameter value to be calculated.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein a fault tolerance is specified for the characteristic value.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein on the basis of the stored reference parameter values a combination of parameter values is calculated with which the characteristic value is hit as accurately as possible.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the calculated combination of parameter values is stored in the storage device together with the characteristic value.

10. A container treatment system with at least one device for treating containers, the container treatment system being assigned a multiplicity of parameters which are characteristic of the treatment of containers in the container treatment plant, the parameters are variable and are linked to at least one value characteristic of the containers to be treated, wherein the container treatment system is configured to be connected to a storage device in which for each parameter a plurality of reference parameter values are stored for each parameter, wherein the container treatment system is assigned a user interface at which at least one value characteristic of the containers to be treated is entered, wherein, on the basis of this input and the stored reference parameter values a combination of parameter values is calculated for at least two of the parameters.

11. The method according to claim 2, wherein during the treatment of the containers at least one actual parameter value of a parameter is measured

12. The method according to claim 2, wherein the combination of parameter values is calculated on the basis of the characteristic value entered at the user interface taking into account the parameter actual value as a fixed parameter value.

13. The method according to claim 2, wherein when calculating the combination of parameter values an optimization for at least one parameter is possible.

14. The method according to claim 2, wherein for at least one parameter, upper and/or lower limits are specified for a parameter value to be calculated.

15. The method according to claim 2, wherein a fault tolerance is specified for the characteristic value.

16. The method according to claim 2, wherein on the basis of the stored reference parameter values a combination of parameter values is calculated with which the characteristic value is hit as accurately as possible.

17. The method according to claim 2, wherein the calculated combination of parameter values is stored in the storage device together with the characteristic value.

18. The method according to claim 3, wherein the combination of parameter values is calculated on the basis of the characteristic value entered at the user interface taking into account the parameter actual value as a fixed parameter value.

19. The method according to claim 3, wherein when calculating the combination of parameter values an optimization for at least one parameter is possible.

20. The method according to claim 3, wherein for at least one parameter, upper and/or lower limits are specified for a parameter value to be calculated.

Description

[0080] Further advantages and embodiments will be apparent from the attached figures:

[0081] It is shown:

[0082] FIG. 1 Typical container treatment systems according to the state of the art;

[0083] FIG. 2 a schematic illustration of a method according to the invention;

[0084] FIG. 3 a schematic illustration of an advantageous method for reacting to process fluctuations;

[0085] FIG. 4 a schematic illustration of an advantageous method for the optimization of parameters;

[0086] FIG. 5 schematic illustration of an advantageous method for setting up new container types.

[0087] FIG. 1 shows typical container treatment systems and their typical arrangement to each other. The container treatment system refers to the entire system as well as to the individual container treatment systems such as furnace, forming devices etc. FIG. 1 shows a heating device 30 in which plastic preforms 10 are heated. These plastic preforms 10 are fed through this heating device 30 by means of a transport device 34, as here a circulating chain, and heated by a multitude of heating elements 31. This heating device 30 is followed by a transfer unit 36, which transfers the preforms 10 to a sterilizing device 32. This sterilizing unit 32 also has a transport wheel 37 and sterilizing elements can be arranged on this transport wheel 37 or even stationary. In this area, sterilization by hydrogen peroxide gas or by electromagnetic radiation is possible, for example. Especially an internal sterilization of the preforms is carried out in this area.

[0088] The reference mark 20 indicates in its entirety a clean room, the outer boundaries of which are indicated here by the dotted line L.

[0089] The reference sign 5 indicates in its entirety a forming device in which a plurality of blowing stations or forming stations 8 are arranged on a transport wheel 6, whereby only one of these blowing stations 8 is shown here. With these blowing stations 8 the plastic preforms 10 are expanded to containers 10. Although not shown in detail here, not the entire area of the transport device 6 is located within the clean room 20, so it would be possible for the clean room to have a channel-like design at least in the area of the forming device 1.

[0090] The reference mark 22 refers to a feeding device which transfers the preforms to the forming device 5 and the reference mark 24 refers to a discharge device which discharges the produced plastic containers 10 from the forming device 5.

[0091] With a transfer unit 42 the expanded plastic containers are transferred to a filling unit 40 and from this filling unit 40 they are then discharged by a further transport unit 44.

[0092] FIG. 2 schematically shows a method according to the invention. A characteristic value W for a container to be treated is transferred to the computing unit 3 via a user interface 4. A large number of reference parameter values (p.sub.11, p.sub.12, p.sub.13, . . . p.sub.1n, . . . p.sub.m1, p.sub.m2, p.sub.m3, . . . p.sub.mn) are stored in storage device 2 for the parameters (P.sub.1, P.sub.2, P.sub.3, . . . P.sub.m). On the basis of these reference parameter values and the user input, computer unit 3 calculates a combination of parameter values (p.sub.1x, p.sub.2x, p.sub.3x, . . . p.sub.yx) for at least two of the parameters (P.sub.1, P.sub.2, P.sub.3, . . . P.sub.m). The parameters can be output via an output unit.

[0093] In FIG. 3, the arithmetic unit is also transferred an actual parameter value p.sub.y_ist, which is taken into account when calculating the combination of parameter values (p.sub.1x, p.sub.2x, p.sub.3x, . . . p.sub.yx).

[0094] In FIG. 4 it is shown that an optimization target can also be transferred to the arithmetic unit (for example, that parameter P.sub.1 should be as low as possible). In such a case, a combination of parameter values (p.sub.1x, p.sub.2x, p.sub.3x, . . . p.sub.yx) is calculated with which this optimization goal can be achieved as well as possible.

[0095] FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of an advantageous method for setting up new container types. The large number of reference parameter values (p.sub.1, p.sub.12, p.sub.13 . . . p.sub.1n, . . . p.sub.m1, p.sub.m2, p.sub.m3, . . . p.sub.mn) are stored in a storage device 2 (central database/cloud). For this purpose, historical system data, as they are preset in the delivery state, can be loaded once into the storage device. In addition, the individual systems (also possible for several systems 1 to n) can load further reference parameter values into the storage device. This is particularly advantageous if new types are treated in a system. If a user wants to set up a new container type (e.g. in a new system), he can send a request for a suitable “recipe” (i.e. a combination of parameter values) for the new type to storage device 2 via user interface 4.

[0096] A suitable combination of parameter values is calculated with the help of a calculation unit 3. This “matched” recipe can be downloaded from the central database/cloud and made available in the system.

[0097] This new recipe can then be checked in the system. If the calculated parameter values turn out to be not completely optimal in practice, they can be adjusted manually. The checked and, if necessary, manually modified recipe can then be loaded into the central database/cloud, so that further reference parameter values are available there.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0098] 1 container treatment system [0099] 2 storage device [0100] 3 unit of account [0101] 4 user interface [0102] 5 forming device [0103] 6 transport wheel [0104] 8 forming stations [0105] 10 containers [0106] 20 clean room [0107] 22 feeding device [0108] 24 discharge device [0109] 30 heating device [0110] 31 heating elements [0111] 32 sterilization facility [0112] 34 transport equipment [0113] 36 transfer unit [0114] 37 transport wheel [0115] 40 filling device [0116] 42 transfer unit [0117] 44 transport unit [0118] L line (clean room) [0119] P.sub.1 . . . . . . parameters [0120] p.sub.11 . . . parameter value [0121] p.sub.y_ist parameter actual value