Patent ID: 11858175
Assignee: THE JAPAN STEEL WORKS, LTD.
Field: Other special machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A continuous kneading apparatus comprising:
a cylinder;
a screw housed in the cylinder;
a plurality of ring-shaped heaters arranged along a longitudinal direction of the cylinder so as to cover an outer peripheral surface of the cylinder;
a plurality of temperature sensors, each of the plurality of temperature sensors being configured to measure a temperature of a part of the cylinder heated by a respective one of the plurality of ring-shaped heaters; and
a controller configured to perform feedback control for each of the plurality of ring-shaped heaters based on the temperature measured by a respective one of the plurality of temperature sensors,
wherein resin pellets charged into the cylinder are kneaded by the screw while being heated by the plurality of ring-shaped heaters, and
wherein, for each of the plurality of ring-shaped heaters, the controller:
calculates a control error from the temperature measured by the temperature sensor;
determines a current state and a reward based on the calculated control error;
updates a control condition based on the determined reward and selects an action corresponding to the current state under the updated control condition, the updated control condition being a combination of a state and the selected action; and
controls the respective ring-shaped heater based on the selected action,
wherein the state represents a predetermined range of control error values, and the current state is the state that represents the range that includes the calculated control error, and
the reward indicates appropriateness of the selected action selected in a previous state previous to the current state.