Control and monitoring system prototype for pulse plasma sintering process

Abstract

Cubic boron nitride is commonly used as a cutting tools material for the sake of its high hardness and wear-resistance. Pulse Plasma Sintering was proposed to decrease the production costs. This method is very attractive for industry, because it significantly decreases the costs of production. The goal of this paper is to present the control system prototype for Pulse Plasma Sintering processes based on programmable logic controller. Only sintering process with carefully controlled parameters allows to restrict the transformation of cBN into hBN and guarantee production of high-quality cubic boron nitride samples. Thus a dedicated control system was developed to control parameters and therefore to improve the production process. This paper presents also a visualisation system which allows the operator to control, monitor and analyze the production process. Prepared application consists of manual and auto operating mode.