v 1.0 — August 2018 Altanium Neo5
Page 86
ART Offset — The ART Offset is the number of degrees that the actual temperature has to be
below the normal setpoint for all the zones before the system starts the ART process.
7.5.13 Zone Slave
Some of the most vulnerable components in the mold are the thermocouples. If a
thermocouple fails, an alarm will sound and an error is logged on the Alarm screen. When
this occurs you can do 1 of the 3 steps that follow:
1. Stop molding, remove the mold and repair the fault. This may not be desirable or even
possible.
2. Switch the zone to Manual control mode and continue processing. This has limitations
as Manual mode is not able to compensate for changes in the process that affect the
heater's power requirements, for example, shear heat.
3. Slave the faulty zone to another. Due to the symmetry in the design of hot runner molds,
frequently there are other zones that have very similar thermal characteristics as the
faulty zone. Neo5 can apply the power output from a fully functioning zone to the zone
with the defective thermocouple. This means that any processing changes that affect
the power requirements of the heaters are automatically applied to the defective zone.
It is similar to repairing the defective thermocouple without ever opening the mold.
7.5.13.1 Using the Automatic Slave Function
If a thermocouple malfunctions during molding operation, the Auto-Slave function will take
over. Heaters are continuously monitored and comparative data is stored. This data is used
to select an almost identical Master/Slave relationship for every zone in the mold.
Based on the stored comparative data, the system knows which zone to slave the faulty zone
to so that it continues to operate in a closed loop control mode.
The only requirement is to see the error, then clear and reset the alarm. On the Neo2 View,
Multi-Group View, and Text View screens, the zone number switches between the original
zone number and the zone to which it is slaved.
Once the error is cleared and reset, the slave value is stored to the database. The Quick Set
screen for that zone displays the zone it is slaved to. The Automatic Slave function can be
disabled in the System Setup screen.
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