2012 9th International Conference on Fuzzy Systems and Knowledge Discovery (FSKD 2012)
The Design of Ball Grinding Mill Automatic
Controlling System Based on Configuration Software
REN Jia-fu WU Shou-yong
Chengdu University of Technology
Chengdu,China
AbstractA new method to design ball grinding mill automatic
controlling system based on the MCGS configuration software
was introduced,and the structure and the working principle of
the whole system were studied.In the design of this system, the
computer with MCGS configuration software was used as a host
computer,and the monitoring functions,such as data collection,
processing,display,alarm,report output,etc.,were realized.
Hypogynous machine (PLC)was used as regulator ,so the process
controlling was realized.The system can be completed on the
mills work situation of real-time remote monitoring and
overload alarm.And the real-time adjustment of the input of
mineral and water can be done according to the changes of the
output of pulp granularity,pulp density and motor current
.Automatic controlling of the ball grinding mill system would be
finally completed.
Keywords-configuration software; MCGS; ball grinding mill;
automatic controlling; PLC
I. INTRODUCTION
The ball mill is a very common form of grinding tool in the
industrial production process,and mainly used in mineral
processing, ceramics, chemicals, cement, glass, refractories
and other industries.The main study here is to research its
automatic controlling system when used in the grinding in
mineral processing plant.Industrial controlling system in the
past, be automated,relied on specific software programming
for the hardware system,this method worked lower
efficiency,higher error rate,and poor software universal.With
the continuous development of the industrial sector,specifically
industrial controlling configuration software came into
being,which is a software tool for user to quickly build
industrial automatic controlling system with monitoring
capability,under a software platform of the automatic
controlling system for monitoring and development
environment,to provide with the advantages of low cost,easy to
develop,rich resources,strong scalability and versatility[1].
With the help of the platform combined MCGS configuration
software with computer, the motor current,the feeding volume
of mineral,the volume of water and the pulp granularity and
density of the output of ball mill in real-time monitoring when
the mill running can be better achieved. And the achieved
datas by monitoring would be counted,analyzed,compared to
right,and finally the control instructions could be issued.
The PLC(Programmable Logic Controller)as a controlling
communication "bridge" between the configuration system and
the lower machine,after receiving the instructions, PLC
978-1-4673-0024-7/10/$26.00 2012 IEEE
module output a corresponding analog controlling signal to
control the amount of mineral and the volume of the water,thus
the entire system maintains in a state of automatic.
II. THE DESIGN OF MONITORING AND
CONTROLLING SYSTEM BASED ON MCGS
A. Introduction to MCGS configuration software
MCGS(Monitor and Control Generated System) is a
windows-based platform for rapid construct and generate
monitoring system configuration software,it can be run on a
variety of 32-bit Microsoft Windows operating system. MCGS
configuration software with functions of animation show,
processing and device controlling, data acquisition and report
output,has some prominent features such as easy operation,
nice visibility,and strong maintainability.So it is very practical
in the field of industrial process controlling and real-time
monitoring[2].
B. The real-time database settings of MCGS configuration
environment
Analyzing the engineering project constitution and the
specification of the ball mill automatic controlling system,
monitoring objects and their characteristics can be acquired,as
is shown in Table. Defining the corresponding data variable
in the MCGS real-time database, assigning their names, types,
starting values and the value scopes, then determine the related
parameters of these variables,such as saving cycle, saving
range, and shelf life ,and so on.
C. The design of the engineering static picture
With the analysis, the need to create three user windows
can be named as "automatic controlling system of ball mill",
"parameters setting" and "graph datas". Configurate on them
separately.
a) The configuration of "automatic controlling system of
ball mill" static screen. In accordance with the kind of
workflow, select a combination hardware icons, and add the
appropriate material flow module and text notes, etc.. In order
to make it easier to observe the entire system controlling, the
real-time display of pulp density, pulp granularity, feeding
volume, water volume, and motor current are set in the same
window with the controlling system,which is shown in Fig.1.
b) The configuration of "graph datas" static screen. Using
the MCGS equipment toolbox, the real-time and historical
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curve platform of the system could be made.Setting the III. THE DESIGN OF AUTOMATIC SYSTEM BASED
feeding volume, water volume, pulp granularity, pulp density ON MCGS
as the demonstration objects, finally establish the withdrawal
button. A. The hardware equipments of the automatic controlling
system
TABLE I. MONITORING AND CONTROLLING OBJECTS OF Building automatic controlling system as a whole needs
STATISTICS industrial computer, PLC, inverters, induction motors, sensors
Parameter and other hardware devices. Using the motor current
No. Name Any Remarks sensor,density sensor,granularity sensor to detect separately
Type
1 Motor current Numeric
Motor current of the ball the operating current, the output pulp density and granularity,
grinding mill and feed them back to PLC,in the end displayed on the screen.
Feeding volume of the ball By MCGS configuration interface, users can keep abreast of
2 Feeding volume Numeric
grinding mill
the work of the entire system, including archiving datas, alarm
Switch of Mineral aggregate
3 Feeding switch Switch type
feeding datas of the objects, and report output,etc..
Water volume of the ball Compare the feedback values with the parameter values
4 Water volume Numeric
grinding mill
given in advance, and then according to the script's
5 Water switch Switch type Switch of water input
6 Pulp granularity Numeric Pulp granularity of the output
programming conditions output corresponding values to the
7 Pulp density Numeric Pulp density of the output PLC, respectively control the frequency converters of water
8 Reset switch Switch type Reset switch of the system supply and feeding by PLC, to change the feeding volume and
Group Combination of the required the water volume of the system, so to achieve automatic
9 Alarm group
object alarm objects controlling.
According to the complexity of the system, taking the
c) The configuration of "parameters setting" static screen. economical and practical, stability into account,select the G110
Use ! SetAlmValue(DatName, Value, Flag), provided by inverter and PLC Siemens series as the main module to build
MCGS,input the proper script programs, and establish links hardware systems. Due to insufficient of hardwares, eventually
between the input boxes and the objects,such as pulp enter simulation of analog signals to the control capabilities of
granularity limits,and so on. the system.

D. Animation connection B. The programming of the automatic controlling system

As the static pictures have been edited, the graphic objects In the configuration design, the implementation of the
in the users window need to be connected with the real-time automatic control is mainly dependent on the preparation of
data objects in the database,and set the properties of an the control strategy. MCGS provides a complete set of control
animation. While the system was running, the appearance and mechanisms, enabling the user to precisely control the work
characteristics of the graphic objects will be driven by the process according to actual needs. Its control strategy is made
gathered real-time data values of the objects, enabling graphics up of different policy modules, while the policy module is
animation effects[3]. made up of multiple policies, and conditions and features of
each strategy is divided into two
parts ,in order to achieve "
Carries out any function under
any condition" mechanism [4].
MCGS control strategy is
prepared in the windows of
operation strategy, its core is
cycle strategy.With the help of
these strategies, it enables the
system to be automatic. Script
syntax is based on common
Basic programming language,
and some specific programming
statements which provided by
MCGS configuration software.

Figure 1 The static picture of Ball Grinding Mill Automatic Controlling System.

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C. Data display and report output
a) The display of alarm datas.In MCGS real-time database,
alarm bounds should be set for data variables, such as motor
current, pulp granularity and density. Append these three
variables as alarm groups object members. Then add an
appropriate user policy and set its new pull-down menu. While
the system running, the exact moment can be shown when any
variables over the limits.
b) The display of the graphs. Graph processing is an
important part of industrial controlling system. Analyzing the
trend of graphs can be helpful to find out the data variation and
benefit to system optimization. In order to display the data
graphs normally when the system running, related properties
should be set for the real-time and historical graph which were
established before.
c) The display of system work.This function is mainly used
for recording and displaying the feeding volume,the water
volume,the pulp granularity and density. This information can
be automatically recorded and displayed at a certain cycle. In
the MCGS real-time database, establish new object and set the
feeding volume, water volume, pulp granularity, pulp density
as its members. Creating relative user strategy, with its strategy
behaviour named Inventory data browsebeing added,set its
display property.
IV. ANALYSIS AND DEBUGGING OF THE
AUTOMATIC CONTROLLING SYSTEM
After the design of the system completed,then may input
the simulated signals to carry on the synthesis. Start the current
project in the configuration environment,enter in the
movement environment, the " Ball Grinding Mill Automatic
Controlling System " begins. Operating the switch on the
interface,the system begins to run. According to the design
requests, there are several functions need be tested.
a) The controlling function of the system switch,to
manually turn on the system or manually forced to shut down
the system. According to the lab test,when the system switch
was turned on, also turned on the material switch and the water
switch,the pulp density,etc.,displayed normally;while the
system switch was shut down,the whole system stopped.
Figure 2 Alarm information display.
b) Alarm and alarm datas display. According to the lab test,
when the motor current was less than 6.5 units ,there would be
a lower alarm, while the motor current is greater than 8.5 units
caused a upper limit alarm; when the pulp granularity was
greater than 85 units,there would be a upper limit alarm,while
the pulp granularity was less than 65 units caused a lower limit
alarm; when the pulp density was less than 65 units,there was a
lower limit alarm, while the pulp density was greater than 85
units caused a upper limit alarm; motor current more than 9
units caused overload alarm, meanwhile the system stopped.
Alarm data is shown in Fig.2.
c) The records for the system show the sample values of the
feeding volume, the water volume,the pulp granularity,and the
pulp density within a certain period of time, and the statistics
of the total and average. According to the lab test, the sampling
took place every 6 seconds, finally counted the total and
average of each, as is shown in Fig.3.
Figure 3 The statistics of the system.
d) Automatic controlling functions, that is, within a certain
range, the water volume changes with the changes in output of
pulp density;the feeding volume changes with the changes of
the motor current and the output of pulp granularity.
According to the lab test, when the motor current increased in
the normal working range of 6.5-8.5 units,there was a
corresponding increase of the feeding volume;when the motor
current reduced, the feeding volume showed a corresponding
reduction. When the pulp granularity increased within the
normal range , there was a corresponding reduction in the
feeding volume; when the pulp granularity decreased, the
feeding volume increased. When the pulp density increased
between the normal working range of 65-85 units, a
corresponding increase in the amount of water volume, pulp
density decreased, giving a corresponding reduction in water
volume.
Figure 4 The real-time curve of the system.
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 errors in data statistics and the average value analysis of each
object.So,it need to be further optimized.
e) Because of the automatic controlling system could not
be really used in the factory,the stability of the system need to
be further tested ,and lots of detail technical issues may be
encountered in practical applications.

[1] Cao Hui, Ma Dong-ping, Wang Xuanet al. Configuration Software

Technology and Application. BEIJING:Publishing House of Electronics
Industry, 2009,p.1.
,, . [M]. :
, 2009,1.
[2] Zhang Wen-ming, Liu zhi-jun.Configuration Software Technologies.
Beijing: Qing Hua University Press, 2006
Figure 5 The historical curve of the system. ,. [M]. :,
2006
e) Data graph shows, which display the real-time and the [3] Beijing Kunlun State Automation Software Technology co., Ltd. MCGS
historical graphs of the system. According to the lab test, real- Reference Manual. Beijing: Beijing Kunlun-State automation software
time graph is shown in Fig.4, historical graph is shown in technology limited, 2004.
Fig.5. With the analyzing of the graphs, it might discover .MCGS [M].:
that,for the whole system,there is a inverse relationship , 2004.
between the feeding volume and the pulp granularity, as well [4] Li Dan. MCGS Monitoring Configuration Software in Densely Ore
Dressing Plant Crushing Plant Application. Kunming: Kunming
the motor current;while a positive correlation between the University of Science and Technology, 2004, pp.35-36
water volume and the pulp density,what conforms to the
. MCGS [D].
design requirements of the system basically. :, 2004,35-36.

V. THE CONCLUSIONS
This article is based on the industrial control configuration
software MCGS, combined with hardware equipments, such as
PLC, inverter, sensor,and so on, and an automatic controlling
system of ball mill was designed. And with the input of
simulated signals, its automatic controlling functions were
tested, its recorded real-time and historical graphs were
analyzed, then come to the following conclusions.
a) Compared with the traditional instrumentation hardware
control, this paper developed an automatic control system
based on the configuration software MCGS, capable of
automatic control the feeding volume and the water volume
,which depend on the changes of output of the pulp
granularity, the pulp density,and the motor current. And obtain
functions of alarm and overload automatic breaking. The
system has a better interactive interface, scalability and
versatility.
b) Through the configuration of real-time graph,historical
graph,etc.,which provided by MCGS, it is possible to keep a
breast on the running status of the system,and to count the
interested objects, just in the central control room,that would
make it easier to optimize and improve the system in the long
run.
c) By the configuration of parameters interface, user can
adjust the normal working ranges of the parameters according
to the actual need when the quality of ore changed.So to
realize the automatic controlling.
d) Because the records and the output report of the system
are completed by the way of gap sampling, there are certain

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