Low Noise Control Algorithm for Multi-lane Conveyors

Abstract

Over the past few years new rules regarding noise exposure of workers have been enacted. In the brewing and beverage industry, this especially concerns the area of bottling. Bottling plants in most cases exceed the new levels. The transport of glass bottles has long been recognized one of the main sources of noise within a bottling hall. This paper examines a new continuous approach for controlling multi-lane bottle conveyors. In contrast to the nowadays used stepwise control, the filling level is detected continuously. Thus the conveyor speed can be adapted exactly to the situation occurring on the conveyor. This leads to noticeable lower noise emissions of the conveyor, without influencing the buffer and transporting tasks in a negative way. The new control concept may help the beverage industry avoid hearing disorders of workers, without decreasing the efficiency of the plants.

Noise risk assessment in a bottling plant of a modern Italian winery

“…Some authors have carried out research aimed at evaluating innovative systems to implement the control of multilane conveyors in bottling plants for noise level reductions . In particular, a continuous control algorithm, to improve the buffering effect and to reduce the noise emission of multilane bottle conveyors, was developed .…”

Continuous Control for Buffering Conveyors in Beverage Bottling Plants

“…A first implemented version of the presented algorithm has been published before in Sorgatz et al 14 The noise reduction results achieved by this first implementation were described in Sorgatz et al 15 This paper explicitly describes the final continuous control algorithm implemented in the pilot plant after it has been reconstructed according to the current state of the art. It summarizes the results achieved by this final algorithm according to buffering effect and noise reduction.…”