Cereal mill and roll stand with several milling passages for optimised milling of milling material and corresponding process

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11618033-B2
Application number	US-201917058667-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 10, 2019
Priority date	May 25, 2018
Publication date	Apr 4, 2023
Grant date	Apr 4, 2023

Abstract

A milling installation and a corresponding method for the milling and/or crushing of granular fruits or the like provide optimized closed-loop and open-loop control. A central closed-loop and open-loop control apparatus provides the optimized control of the milling installation. Memory-programmable controllers are connected bidirectionally via network interfaces to the central closed-loop and open-loop control apparatus and/or addressed and controlled by transmitted control parameters. The control apparatus controls centrally, in particular in a web-based manner, the processing apparatuses of different passages of the same or different mills. During the generation of the control parameters, a distinction is drawn between passage-specific and environment-specific management/operating parameters.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A milling installation comprising:
one or more mills with one or more processing lines for industrial production of a plurality of milling products, wherein each of the one or more processing lines comprises processing devices including at least one milling passage with milling roll pairs for milling a milling material and at least one downstream screening passage for sifting or screening the milling material, each of the at least one milling passage comprising an upper milling roll and a lower milling roll underneath the upper milling roll with a product removal funnel between the upper milling roll and the lower milling roll, wherein the one or more processing lines are configured to produce a specific milling product with specific yield parameters and milled product parameter, and wherein each of the one or more mills of the milling installation comprises at least one programmable logic controller circuitry configured for local control and/or regulation of the processing devices assigned to each of the one or more processing lines through allocated I/O interfaces; and
a central regulation and control circuitry for optimized control of the milling installation, wherein the programmable logic controller circuitries are connected bidirectionally by network interfaces to the central regulation and control circuitry and are configured to respond to transferred control parameters from the central regulation and control circuitry, and wherein the processing devices of each of the one or more processing lines are configured to be actuated based on the control parameters under control of the programmable logic controller circuitries remotely through assigned I/O interfaces and operation of which is controllable locally, wherein
the central regulation and control circuitry is configured to generate the control parameters depending on passage-specific and/or passage-encompassing batch parameters, wherein the passage-encompassing batch parameters comprise parameters with a same or corresponding relevance on the processing lines, and are configured to be used centrally through the central regulation and control circuitry to generate control/regulation and monitoring of the processing lines, and wherein the passage-specific batch parameters comprise parameters with only specific relevance for a certain one of the one or more processing lines or are specific for one of the processing devices,
the central regulation and control circuitry is further configured to automatically detect and correct a definable parameter fluctuation or anomaly of at least one of the control parameters or the batch parameters, and
the processing devices being configured to be centrally optimizable by one of the control parameters based on one or more of the passage-specific and/or passage-encompassing parameters of various ones of the one or more processing lines by the regulation and control circuitry, wherein by the regulation and control circuitry, the passage-encompassing parameters are globally optimizable and controllable across the devices for at least two of the processing lines, whereas by the regulation and control circuitry, the passage-specific parameters are optimizable and controllable independently in relation to a relevant one of the one or more processing lines.

2. The milling installation according to claim 1 , wherein remote control and regulation of the processing devices is done by local machine processes of the processing devices by the central regulation and control circuitry in real-time data exchange.

3. The milling installation according to claim 1 , wherein the central regulation and control circuitry comprises a network interface by which a control system of the one or more mills, comprising the programmable logic controller circuitries and the network interfaces of the central regulation and control circuitry is accessible, and the central regulation and control circuitry is configured to generate the control parameters to be passed depending on the passage-specific and passage-encompassing batch parameters, wherein, by at least one of the control parameters based on one or more of the passage-specific and/or environment-specific parameters various ones of the processing lines are centrally optimizable and/or individually controllable by the regulation and control circuitry.

4. The milling installation according to claim 3 , wherein the passage-encompassing parameters comprise location-dependent measurement parameters comprising humidity and/or air pressure and/or ambient temperature, and the passage-specific parameters comprise local operating parameters of the processing devices comprising energy consumption of the milling roll pairs and/or preliminary pressure and/or input temperature of the milling material.

5. The milling installation according to claim 3 , wherein by the central regulation and control circuitry, the passage-encompassing parameters are optimized and controlled globally for at least two milling passages, whereas the passage-specific parameters are optimized and controlled independently in relation to a relevant one of the milling passages.

6. The milling installation according to claim 3 , wherein the control parameters, based on the passage-encompassing parameters, are optimized and controlled globally for at least two different ones of the processing lines, whereas the passage-specific parameters are optimized and controlled independently to effect an optimized generation of the control parameters of a relevant one of the passages.

7. The milling installation according to claim 1 , wherein the central regulation and control circuitry is configured to implement operative process recipes, wherein, based on one of the operative process recipes, a batch control is controllable with a defined processing sequence of the milling roll pairs or the at least one downstream screening passage of one of the processing lines, and wherein, based on the one of the operative process recipes, from one or more input materials with specific property parameters, a defined quantity of an end product with specific property parameters can be generated,
wherein during a milling process of the one of the operational process recipes, the central regulation and control circuitry is configured to monitor continuously the operational control parameters and/or the batch parameters, wherein in a detection of a definable parameter value fluctuation or anomaly as defined by a deviation of the monitored control parameters and/or the batch parameters from defined control parameters and/or the batch parameters, the control parameters are corrected and/or adapted automatically by the central regulation and control circuitry.

8. The milling installation according to claim 1 , wherein the passage-specific measurement parameters comprise at least measurement parameters relating to flows and/or power consumption of one or more roll stands of the milling installation.

9. The milling installation according to claim 8 , wherein the milling roll pairs comprise at least fluted rolls and/or smooth rolls.

10. The milling installation according to claim 8 , wherein the passage-specific measurement parameters comprise at least measurement parameters relating to the flows and/or power consumption of all roll stands of the mill.

11. The milling installation according to claim 1 , wherein by process-typical operation control parameters of an optimized batch process in a standard range, defined quality parameters of an end product and specific flour yield are determined depending on input products.

12. The milling installation according to claim 1 , wherein defined property parameters of an end product c

Assignees

• Buehler Ag

Inventors

• Schneider Michael

Classifications

• Y02P90/02

  Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] · CPC title

• B02C4/06 Primary

  specially adapted for milling grain · CPC title

• B02C25/00

  Control arrangements specially adapted for crushing or disintegrating · CPC title

• B02C9/04

  Systems or sequences of operations; Plant · CPC title