CD-Control

Intelligent Capacitance and Diameter Control

CD-Control on the
ECOCONTROL 2000

During the production of communication cables, it is interesting to control both the outer diameter and the capacitance of the product online in order to ensure the quality of the final product. It is well known that these two parameters are coupled physically. A change in the process will cause a change both in the capacitance and the outer diameter of the cable at the same time, however in an opposite direction. If the outer diameter increases, the capacitance falls and vice versa. It is proved that such a system cannot be controlled well in a traditional feedback way. In the past years, some control methods have been developed that switch between controlling the outer diameter respectively the capacitance, but the result is so far unsatisfying.

SIKORA presents an intelligent CD-Control system combining our diameter gauges of the LASER Series 2000, capacitance gauges CAPACITANCE 2000 and the corresponding processor system ECOCONTROL 2000. It is based on an elegant solution of decoupling the interaction between the change of the capacitance and the change of the outer diameter in a way that these two parameters can be controlled simultaneously without mutual influences. The control loop becomes much faster and more stable without oscillation.

The SIKORA CAPACITANCE 2000 gauges, being one important part in the CD-Control concept, furthermore offer the innovative multizone electrode design. Based on the implementation of both a long and a short electrode, this patented design provides both highest precision and SRL prediction up to 8 GHz.