Intelligent control of hydraulic duplex pulsating pump

First the tasks to be executed by the control system are described in details. Next the main tasks of the safety system, namely recognition/identification and recording the possible errors, generation of emergency signals categorized into sets of different "levels", and delivering information to the human operator for utilization, are described. Certain signals can directly adjust the operation of the pump. The paper reports on the development of a PLC-based intelligent control system for a large membrane pump applied in the aluminium industry for circulating a liquid-soil suspension of Al content. During the development phase several significant mechatronic problems were encountered, and the solution of which was of general interest. Such task was to guarantee safety of the operation normally imperiled by typical possible events as a membrane crash. The membrane crash will cause an immediate stoppage of the pump. Furthermore, several effects such as a possible leaking, thermal expansion of the hydraulic oil as well as the data delivered by the membrane position sensor, have to be taken into account in controlling the pressure in the membrane chamber