Monitoring and Control of Quality of the Primary Layer of Mineral Wool on a Disc Spinning Machine

Abstract

A novel method of measurement and control of the primary layer quality in mineral wool production processes is presented. The measurement method is based on image acquisition and processing of the mineral wool primary layer structure. As a statistical estimator of the primary layer quality, the ratio between the RMS (root mean square) and the average intensity in a selected region of the image was used. A regression model of mineral wool production process control is presented. It relates the statistical estimator of the primary layer homogeneity with the key process parameters. The regression model was derived using dimensional analysis and selection of characteristic numbers. The parameters of the regression model were selected using experimental data from a spinning machine. The results show very good agreement with a regression coefficient r 2 higher than 0.81. The regression model permits mineral wool production process control, since all the key parameters in the model can be measured in a real production process.