Abstract:
A hydraulic press is utilized to make different Zircaloy compacts by adding alloying elements to Zirconium sponge on-line. The press is equipped with automatic weighing and dosing system to dispense Zirconium sponge and alloys into press die-cavity. The alloys are sandwiched between the layers of, Zirconium sponge in a predetermined pattern.
This dissertation aims at:
1) Development of application program for Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) - to control 'press operations and on-line weighing and dispensing the different materials into die-cavity. PLC receives. various set points from PC based Human Machine Interface (HMI) and sends the actual values for operator information,
1 .
logging and alarm generation. PLC also sends the data to mimic status of various sub-systems.
2)- Development of PC based operator interface using. CIMPLICITY HMI package for computation of composition of alloying elements in weight percentage of compact, based on chemical analysis of sponge. PC communicates with PLC over serial interface.
