Miller Magazine Issue: 123 March 2020

54 COVER STORY MILLER / MARCH 2020 value with the target value and detects any deviation from target granulation. TRENDS IN ROLLER MILLS SENSORS Individual components inside the roller mill are closely monitored by sensors to and alert the operator to any po- tential hazards. Most of the roller mills nowadays are equipped with most of these sensors: • Stock level sensor • Motor load sensor • Main roll temperature sensor • Roll bearing temperature sensor • Vibration sensor (PMD) • Main roll rotation sensor • Main roll position sensor • Timing belt temperature sensor • Feed roll rotation sensor • Air pressure sensor • Hopper clog sensor To ensures a uniform product feed to the grinding rolls according to the product level in the feed box the feed roll speed is controlled automatically by the stock level sensor in the feed box which sends a signal to feed roll drive motor. Heating up of rolls or bearings are a sign that something is not correct. Monitoring of vibrations in rolls and tempera- ture of the rollers and bearings ensure maximum operating safety, high production uptime, constant and consistent production quality and prevent excessive wear and critical failures also allow bearing changes to be planned. COMMUNICATION TO AUTOMATIC CONTROL SYSTEMS In IoT ready machine automatic control systems, modern mills will increasingly be equipped with various sensors that detect different specific data and send these to a central control system. The stored data are transformed into signals that can be further processed. The most recent addition to the milling system is con- trolling the roll gap for an optimal grinding result automati- cally. The online particle size measuring sensor continuously measures the particle size distribution in the ground product and sends the data to central control system. The central control system compares the measured actual value with the target value then records the deviations and automat- ically adjusts the milling gap to the target value. This en- sures a consistent product quality with minimized energy consumption. State of the art machine control, access through plant computer, wireless access through smartphone and tablet and an intuitive user interface makes the roller mill more efficient than ever before. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENT MILLING SYSTEM In an intelligent mill, the actions determined from the col- lected and analyzed data are executed automatically. The intelligent mill is constantly optimizing itself and learning in addition. The AI milling system will be concerned to col- lecting and analyzing the data from the other activities of the mill, such as logistics, quality assurance, auditing and so on in order to take the necessary conclusions. Intelligent milling system will be equipped with special process algorithms that al- low software applications to become more accurate in predicting outcomes without being explicitly programmed. This system will be developed to cre- ate a maintenance program that re- duces possible maintenance errors and decreases personal and mainte- nance costs. IS AI MILL SYSTEM LUXURY AI mill systems have the potential to bring greater advantage to the pro- duction process. Miller has to know that the investments in new automa- tion and digitalized systems is more efficient and profitable than conven- tional mill system. AI mill systems will improve process efficiency, eliminate personnel errors, the yield of the mill can be optimized and significantly increase the quality of the products, improve traceability, reduce energy consumption, need fewer workforces, ensure easy and fast machine mainte- nance, and make a long uptime.