Fuzzy Self-Tuning PID Controller for Pressure Control in VCM

Abstract

Owing to nonlinearity, time-delay and complexity of pressure control system in vacuum casting (VC) process, the traditional pressure tuning method can’t guarantee the good performance and thus high quality product nowadays. In this paper, a novel pressure control strategy for vacuum casting process, combining fuzzy PID and neural network methods, is proposed to solve this problem. The proposed strategy can on-line regulate pressure difference between low and upper chambers of VCM to meet the pressure requirement in VC process, thus ensuring high quality part. With the aid of Matlab and configuration software – Forcecontrol, the proposed fuzzy self-tuning controller is implemented in a sample machine. The experiment result shows that the presented pressure controller can track the pressure profile accurately and thus can further improve the product quality.