Identification and adaptive control of a glass furnace

The Research Group for Automation of the Central Research and Design Institute for Silicate Industry (CRDISI) has been working for some years on the automation of technological processes in the silicate industry, in cooperation with the Department of Automation of the Technical University of Budapest (DATU). CRDISI yields the technological background, provides for the hardware tools and the basic software to the common work. The implementation of up-to-date process control algorithms, the design and execution of control experiments are incumbent on the DATU. In 1974 the Institute for Silicate Industry set up a so-called Portable Process Computer Laboratory (PPCL) to solve control problems arising in the cement, ceramic and glass factories in Hungary. Data logging, monitoring and control programs were developed for several problems [1, 2]. Our first problem was to model the second furnace of the Bellied Glass Factory in Oroshaza (Hungary) and the control of the level of the melted glass in the furnace.