A new tension controller for continuous strip processing line

The strip tension as well as the line speed should be controlled tightly fo r the quality of products and productivity of the continuous strip processi ng line. In this paper, a new tension control algorithm with tension observ er is proposed using observed tension as a regulator feedback, The tension observer is based on the torque balance of a roller stand, including the ac celeration torque, Using this estimated tension, a new tension controller c an be constructed with faster dyanmic response in case of line speed accele ration or deceleration. The proposed scheme needs no additional hardware be cause the inputs of observer, current and speed, are already being monitore d by the motor drive system. As this scheme directly controls torque curren t of motor, better control performance can be obtained even without the ten sion transducer, Through the simulations and experiments with the laborator y setup, the performance of conventional schemes and the proposed one are c ompared. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed tension control ler.