Design and implementation of a monitoring and control system for setting and balancing a tile grinding line

Abstract

A tile grinding line is composed of several consecutive pairs of opposed abrasive tools driven by electric motors that progressively remove material from the tile edges. A correctly balanced line is essential to optimize the lifetime of the tools and electricity and abrasive consumption, but keeping the line under control is difficult due to the fact that working conditions of every wheel are affected by their adjacent wheels. Moreover, changing characteristics of worked tiles and uneven wheels wear modify the operating point of wheels. This work explains the design and implementation of a system for monitoring and controlling the operation state of abrasive tools in a tile grinding line. The monitoring system acquires the current data of each electric motor and transfers it to the control system. A fuzzy logic controller decides the state of each motor, generating a correction signal to adjust the wheels. The experiments carried out demonstrate that the designed system simplifies balancing tasks.