REVEALING THE GAPS TOWARDS A SOFTWARE SYSTEM TO GUIDE THE OPERATOR IN THE CARBONISING PROCESS

Abstract

In the different stages of the carbonising process, certain parameters have to be of certain values to ensure the quality of wool at the end of the industrial process. The amount of sulphuric acid to be added to the bowl in order to obtain a particular concentration during acidizing, the level of moisture regain in the wool in the drying stage, the resultant pH after the wool has been neutralised, the percentage loss in mass and the amount of wool obtained after the crushing stages are some of these parameters. This paper describes a first attempt to define the concepts and development of a guideline software that enables the calculation of parameters required to facilitate a smooth carbonisation process as initiated by the operator. This research brings to fore that some of the parameters are subjective and hence cannot be automated. The operator has to make the final decision in such cases. It also brings to fore the fact that there are gaps in the research which have yet to be filled in coming up with formulae to calculate some of the parameters. In the software developed, the whole carbonisation process is broken down into objects, each of which is autonomous software, providing a specialised function. The objects in this software represent the different carbonisation stages of acidising, drying and baking, crushing and dusting and neutralising. These objects are controlled via a menu, which acts as the central control of the software architecture to create a single unit between the various objects.