Integrated control platform for injection molding system

• US 6,275,741 B1
• Filed: 10/05/1998
• Issued: 08/14/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Husky Injection Molding Systems Limited
• Original Assignee: Husky Injection Molding Systems Limited
• Inventors: Choi, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Gordon, Paul P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): CABRERA, ZOILA E
• Application Number:
  US09/166,738
• Time in Patent Office: 1,044 Days
• Field of Search: 700/200-205, 700/2, 700/10, 264/40.1
• US Class Current: 700/200
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 2945/76083 Position
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 2945/76521 power
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 2945/76531 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 2945/76936 The operating conditions are corrected in the next phase or cycle
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 45/76 Measuring, controlling or regulating measuring in general G01; controlling or regulating in general G05
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/414 Structure of the control system, e.g. common controller or multiprocessor systems, interface to servo, programmable interface controller
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31104 Remote configuration of parameters of controlled devices
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31137 Sercos serial real time communications system between servo and cpu
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31205 Remote transmission of measured values from site, local to host
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34265 Windows nt, windows-2000
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34403 RTI real time, kernel, processing
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45244 Injection molding

Abstract

Apparatus and method for controlling an injection molding system having a plurality of devices which generate a corresponding plurality of feedback signals includes structure and steps for providing an operator control station which has a display and at least one operator input device. A single, general-purpose computer is coupled to both the operator control panel and the plurality of injection molding devices and functions to perform multiple-tasking control of both the injection molding functions and the operator control functions. The computer preferably performs real-time closed loop control of the plurality of injection molding devices while also processing system feedback signals and operator input signals. Thus, there is no need for the analog signal processor and the programmable logic controller of the prior art. Preferably, the single general purpose computer has local area network and internet connections to allow external control and feedback of the operating parameters of the injection molding system.

Claims

1. Apparatus for controlling an injection molding system having a plurality of devices which generate a corresponding plurality of feedback signals, said apparatus comprising:

a human machine interface having a display and at least one operator input device; and

a general purpose computer directly coupled to both said human machine interface and to the plurality of injection molding devices, said general purpose computer multi-tasking;

(i) real-time closed loop control of said plurality of injection molding devices based on the plurality of feedback signals; and

(ii) human machine interface display.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said general purpose computer performs real-time closed loop control of said plurality of injection molding devices based on data received from the operator input device.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said general purpose computer performs multi-tasking processing of the closed loop control of said plurality of injection molding devices.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said general purpose computer performs multi-tasking processing of (i) the closed loop control of said plurality of injection molding devices and (ii) data received from the operator input device or devices.

5. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said general purpose computer has an open architecture for running off-the-shelf software unrelated to the control of the injection molding machine.

6. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said general purpose computer has an interface for coupling said general purpose computer to at least one of a local area network and the internet.

7. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said general purpose computer performs the real-time closed loop control of said plurality of injection molding devices in the absence of an analog signal processor and a programmable logic controller.

8. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said general purpose computer is disposed remote from said operator control panel.

9. Apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a field bus connecting said general purpose computer to said plurality of injection molding devices; and

a serial bus link connecting said general purpose computer to said operator control panel.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said field bus comprises a high-speed multiplexed signal bus which carries said plurality of feedback signal to said general purpose computer, and carries real-time control signals from said general purpose computer to said plurality of injection molding devices.

11. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said serial bus comprises a bi-directional, gigabit serial bus capable of carrying multiplexed data between said general purpose computer and said operator control panel.

12. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said serial bus is more than about 10 meters long and operates at above about one gigabit per second.

13. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said general purpose computer performs smart filtering of said feedback signals, and performs alarm management based on the filtered feedback signals.

14. A single computer for controlling an injection molding system having (i) a plurality of injection molding devices which carry out injection molding processes and provide feedback signals, and (ii) a human machine interface having a display and at least one manual input device for inputting operator commands, said single computer comprising:

a first input/output for receiving command signals from said human machine interface manual input device, and for providing display signals to the human machine interface display;

a second input/output for receiving the feedback signals directly from the plurality of injection molding devices, and for providing real-time control signals directly to the plurality of injection molding devices; and

a CPU for generating the real-time control signals in accordance with said feedback signals and said command signals, said CPU performing multi-masking processing of;

(i) said command signals,

(ii) said display signals,

(iii) said feedback signals, and

(iv) said control signals.

15. A computer according to claim 14, wherein said CPU performs said multi-tasking processing according to a predetermined priority of tasks.

16. A computer according to claim 15, wherein said CPU runs an off-the-shelf, real-time extension kernel to perform said multi-tasking processing.

17. A computer according to claim 14, wherein said CPU controls the plurality of injection molding devices in the absence of an analog signal processor.

18. A computer according to claim 14, wherein said CPU performs real-time closed loop control of the plurality of injection molding devices based on said feedback signals.

19. A computer according to claim 14, further comprising a third input/output for transferring injection molding signals to/from at least one of a local area network and the internet.

20. A computer according to claim 14, wherein said CPU has are open architecture capable of running off-the-shelf software unrelated to control of said plurality of injection molding devices.

21. An injection molding system comprising:

a plurality of injection molding devices for performing an injection molding operation, said plurality of injection molding devices receiving real-time control signals and outputting real-time feedback signals;

a human machine interface having a display and at least one operator input device; and

a single processor which (i) receives the real-time feedback signals from said plurality of injection molding devices and command signals from said at least one operator input device;

(ii) multi-task processes the received signals in accordance with a plurality of predetermined injection molding control programs and display programs, (iii) outputs the real-time control signals to the plurality of injection molding devices and outputs display signals to the human machine interface display in accordance with the plurality of predetermined injection-molding control programs and display programs, and (iv) has an operating system which is capable of running commercial software.

22. A system according to claim 21, wherein said single processor has a Windows NT operating system and multi-task processes using an off-the-shelf real-time extension kernel.

23. A system according to claim 21, wherein said plurality of injection molding devices includes an analog device and a digital device, and wherein said single processor controls both said analog device and said signal device.

24. A system according to claim 21, wherein said processor is disposed remote from said control panel and said plurality of injection molding devices.

25. A system according to claim 21, wherein said single processor has an interface for transmitting/receiving signals to/from a remote processor.

26. A system according to claim 21, wherein said single processor performs real-time control of said plurality of injection molding devices and real-time control of said control panel display.

27. A method of controlling an injection molding system which has (i) a plurality of injection molding devices that perform injection molding processes and provide feedback signals, and (ii) a human machine interface with a display and at least one operator input device, comprising the steps of:

inputting to a single processor the feedback signals and signals from the operator input device; and

using said single processor to control, in real-time, both;

(i) said plurality of injection molding devices and

(ii) said human machine interface display.

28. A method according to claim 27, wherein said single processor performs multi-tasking processing of said feedback signals and signals from the operator input device.

29. A method according to claim 28, wherein said single processor has an open architecture capable of running commercial software.

30. A method according to claim 29, wherein said single processor performs multi-tasking processing using a real-time extension kernel.

31. A method according to claim 27, wherein said single processor controls both said plurality of injection molding devices and said control panel display in the absence of a programmable logic controller and an analog signal processor.

32. A method according to claim 27, wherein said single processor is disposed remote from said injection molding machine.

33. A method according to claim 32, wherein said single processor communicates with said control panel by multiplexing information over a gigabit serial bus.

34. A method according to claim 33, wherein said single processor communicates with said plurality of injection molding devices over a field bus having an error correction function.

35. A method according to claim 27, wherein said single processor performs close d loop control of said plurality of injection molding devices.

36. At least one storage medium for storing computer-readable data which causes a single general purpose computer to control (i) an injection molding system having a plurality of injection molding devices that perform injection molding operations and produce a plurality of feedback signals, and (ii) a human machine interface having a display and an operator input device, said computer-readable data causing the single general purpose computer to:

receive the feedback signals and signals from the human machine interface operator input device; and

perform multi-task processing to control both;

(i) the plurality of injection molding devices and

(ii) the human machine interface in real-time, said multi-tasking processing performing human machine interface functions in background and injection molding device functions in foreground.

37. At least one storage medium according to claim 36, wherein said computer-readable data causes the single general purpose computer to perform closed loop control of said plurality of injection molding devices in the absence of a programmable logic controller and an analog signal processor.

38. At least one storage medium according to claim 36, wherein said computer-readable data causes the single general purpose computer to perform said multi-tasking processing using a commercial real-time extension kernel having a multi-tasking scheduler.

39. At least one storage medium according to claim 36, wherein said computer-readable data causes the single general purpose computer to perform error correction control of said feedback signals and the signals from the control panel operator input device.

40. At least one storage medium according to claim 36, wherein said computer-readable data causes the single general purpose computer to display, on said control panel display, data corresponding to said feedback signals.

41. At least one storage medium according to claim 36, wherein said computer-readable data causes the single general purpose computer to store archival data corresponding to said feedback signals.

42. At least one storage medium according to claim 36, wherein said computer-readable data causes the single general purpose computer to receive data from and/or transmit data to at least one of a local area network and the internet.

43. At least one storage medium according to claim 36, wherein said computer-readable data causes the single general purpose computer to utilize fuzzy logic to control said plurality of injection molding devices.