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The primary input for a calibration process in CW 1 is a range of step counts. For
each of these step counts a number of dispenses is performed and the mean
volume, dispensed by each step count is determined. These step counts and
corresponding mean dispensed volumes are written into the calibration table.
3) The first issue we need to address is checking that the scale configuration
matches the actual scale. When you choose “Maintenance” from the main
menu, a submenu containing the “Configuration…” item appears. Please
select this.
4) The following window appears:
Calibration Workshop 2
5) You have now entered the configuration section of the IDEX Dispenser Driver
(IDD). This driver contains all knowledge on how to communicate with a
particular type of dispenser and how exactly this dispenser needs to be
calibrated. Please select the “Settings” tab page. The following window
appears:
Calibration Workshop 2
7) The first item to pay attention to is the Scale Type. This selects the
appropriate communication protocol. In case your scale has a brand name not
listed in the combo box you could consult your scale’s manual for supported
protocols, which may include one or more of the scale brands supported in
this release of the IDD. Please select the appropriate type.
8) When you click the “Set Defaults” button now, the standard communication
Properties of your selected scale type are entered into the “Baudrate” through
the “Stopbits” combo boxes. Please note that the communication properties
may be altered on the scale as well, so these vales need not necessarily be
the right values. In that case you need to adjust either the IDD’s Scale
configuration communication properties or the communication properties of
the scale itself until these parameters correspond. Please also select the
appropriate COM port in the combo box in the upper right corner of the
window and click the “Apply” button.
9) In order to verify that communication is indeed working properly, please verify
that the scale’s serial connection cable has been plugged in the correct COM
port, the scale is also connected to an appropriate power source, and has
been switched on. After clicking Apply, click the “Get Weight” button and
watch the text box on the right side of this button. Either a scale reading
Calibration Workshop 2
Now let’s have a closer look at calibration “Profiles”, listed below the “Profile”
heading.
1) Each channel may have a particular profile associated with it. For each
channel you should select the most appropriate profile. Some standard
profiles are included in the PrismaPro/IDD/Calibration Workshop package.
You can define your own profiles tailored to your own particular requirements.
2) The profile specifies how the corresponding channel is to be calibrated. In
order to look at a particular profile, either click “Edit Profiles” or right click when
the cursor is positioned on a particular channel. In case you clicked “Edit
Profiles” you need to select the profile you’re interested in via the window that
appears:
Calibration Workshop 2
This window lists the pump type this profile is intended for (one can only choose
from pump sizes defined in the machine configuration), the amount unit, the
amounts for which this channel must be calibrated, tolerances, number of
samples and cleaning rounds. Their meaning is given below.
1) Amount. The amounts specify which calibration points are to be established. It
makes sense to select amounts that are important to the customer i.e. the
amounts that will be used in the customer’s formulations. When these
Calibration Workshop 2
1) Please note the checkbox marked “Measure the component’s density before
sampling.” Clicking this checkbox causes one full stroke to be dispensed from
this channel and the dispensed mass to be measured. As the pump type of
this channel is known, and therewith the volume of a full stroke of this pump,
Calibration Workshop 2
the density of the component can easily be determined. When you feel the
density already shown matches the actual density you could skip this
operation in order to save time and component.
2) Following density measurement you will notice that the valve of the current
pump is opening and closing 10 times. This is to determine whether fluid is
dispensed by just moving the valve. In case the pump has not been cleared of
air correctly, a tiny amount of fluid may be dispensed every time the valve is
opened and closed. This would of course influence the calibration process and
is therefore measured separately. Note that this operation is repeated
whenever the specified number of cleaning rounds changes between
calibration points. A cleaned nozzle will be influenced by opening and closing
the valve in a different way than a smudged nozzle.
3) Calibration now proceeds from the largest specified amount down to the
smallest specified amount.
4) For each specified calibration point the process begins by calculating the
theoretical number of steps that would be necessary to dispense the stated
amount. This calculation takes not only the theoretical pump parameters into
account, but everything learned from previous dispenses from this channel in
this calibration session as well.
5) The first try that is dispensed for this point is usually already close to the
requested amount but could be outside the stated tolerance. The next iteration
for this calibration point takes this new data into consideration as well and will
be closer to the requested amount. Dispensing and measuring continues until
the requested number of samples within tolerance has been attained.
6) Calibration may continue successfully till the smallest calibration point has
been processed, but it could also turn out that below a particular amount
cannot be dispensed reliably with the current setup. When CW decides that no
converging of results occurs within 5 tries a window will appear, informing the
user of this situation. In this case the smallest reliably dispensable amount will
be written to the dispenser configuration file.
7) When all the channels you want to calibrate have been processed, the
dispenser is ready for normal operation.
8) Instead of pressing the Calibrate button you could press the Report button in
order to check whether an existing calibration table still provides accurate
results. Upon clicking this button, the following window appears:
Calibration Workshop 2
Although you could just perform another calibration, it is wiser to report dispenser
behavior. This function appears to operate in a way similar to calibration, but there
are a few differences:
• Reporting does not alter the calibration table.
• Reporting does not allow you to measure component density.
• Instead of trying to dispense the requested amount in the calibration point,
reporting dispenses the exact number of steps in the calibration point.
Calibration Workshop 2
Additional functionality
File menu
Select Dispenser
This menu item allows you to select another dispenser configuration file. Please
make sure that the configuration file you choose corresponds to the dispenser that is
actually connected to the computer. The open dialog that appears when you choose
“Select Dispenser” allows you to navigate through your file system and select the
Calibration Workshop 2
Edit profiles
This menu item allows you to select a particular profile for editing. The first step is
selecting the profile you wish to edit in the window which is shown:
Calibration Workshop 2
The window which appears next allows you to manipulate the selected profile. Each
profile consists of a number of calibration points which have several properties. The
optimum number of calibration points in the profile depends on the properties of the
colorant-pump combination. More calibration points could yield a better accuracy but
increases calibration time and colorant loss. The following properties pertain to each
calibration point:
Amount
Specify the amounts that are important in your formulae here. In case many
formulae contain a particular amount, let’s assume 1 ml, it makes sense to
specify this as a calibration point. Following calibration, the steps necessary to
dispense this exact amount can be read directly from the calibration table and
therefore dispensed most accurately. During normal operation, other amounts
are interpolated between the points in the calibration table and may be just as
accurate; depending on how the particular colorant performs for that amount in
that particular pump.
The tolerance in CW does NOT set the tolerances within which the
dispenser should operate during normal functioning (read production). During
normal operation, the necessary number of steps is just interpolated from the
Calibration Workshop 2
Please consider the following imaginary, and ideal, list of dispenses in the
format Steps, Amount dispensed in ml.
Step, ml
95, 0.95
96, 0.96
97, 0.07
98, 0.98
99, 0.99
100, 1.00
101, 1.01
102, 1.02
103, 1.03
104, 1.04
105, 1.05
When tolerance is set to 0.03, only the following dispenses would be used to
calculate the calibration table:
Step, ml
97, 0.07
98, 0.98
99, 0.99
100, 1.00
101, 1.01
102, 1.02
103, 1.03
And when the tolerance is set to 0.05 the dispenses values listed below would
be used to calculate the calibration table:
Step, ml
95, 0.95
96, 0.96
97, 0.07
98, 0.98
99, 0.99
100, 1.00
Calibration Workshop 2
101, 1.01
102, 1.02
103, 1.03
104, 1.04
105, 1.05
Note that, in this example, both tolerances would result in exactly the same
calibration table because in this ideal situation each step exactly dispenses
0.01 ml.
Because this is not usually the case in the real world and calibration workshop
needs to search for the exact steps/volume ratio at different amounts, a
tolerance has been built in to make sure that only those dispenses are taken
into account when calculating the calibration table that are sufficiently close to
the desired value.
When a tolerance is specified too tight, which is the case when the relation
between steps and dispensed volume yields larger differences than the
specified tolerance and consequently calibration workshop fails to calculate a
number of steps that dispenses a volume within the specified tolerance then
the tolerance needs to be increased.
These tolerances are NOT used during normal operation (production). When
working, normally the number of steps needed to dispense a certain volume,
is interpolated from the calibration table and subsequently dispensed.
Differences in dispensed amount for a certain number of steps entirely depend
on fluid and pump characteristics.
Whether your data are "correct" depends on your needs. You could use the
"report" function in CW to verify that amounts and repeatability conform to your
needs.
Clean Rounds
This specifies how many times the turntable must rotate between dispenses in
order to clean the nozzle. During normal operation each nozzle passes the
brush at least once but in order to save time this value may be set to 0 for
larger amounts where measurement accuracy is not affected too much. The
normal value for Clean Rounds is 1.
Calibration Workshop 2
Settings
The settings window allows you to specify your preferences regarding units,
displaying accuracy and automatic start of calibrating functionality.
Channel menu
Calibrate
Starts the calibration process
Report
Starts the reporting process
Calibration profile
Create/modify/delete calibration profiles
Copy calibration table
This menu item copies the calibration table of the channel that was selected in
Calibration Workshop’s main screen.
Paste calibration table
This menu item pastes the calibration table of the channel where it was copied
from to the channel that was selected in Calibration Workshop’s main screen.
Maintenance menu
Purge Single
This menu item purges (dispenses a predefined small amount) from the
channel that was selected in Calibration Workshop’s main screen.
Purge All
This menu item purges all channels.
Refill
Calibration Workshop 2
This menu item moves the turntable to the refill position and presents a refill
dialog for the channel that was selected in Calibration Workshop’s main
screen.
Configuration
This menu item presents the IDD (IDEX Dispenser Driver) configuration
screen to the user. Please consult the PrismaPro manual for a complete
description of the IDD configuration windows.
Help Menu
About
Principle of operation
Upon measuring, Calibration Workshop starts with calculating the requested number
of steps in order to dispense the largest specified calibration point. Calculation is
performed by interpolating on the line (0,0) through (Full stroke amount, Maximum
steps). The calculated number of steps is subsequently dispensed, the dispensed
mass is measured and finally the dispensed volume is determined by dividing the
measured mass by the component’s density. Usually the dispensed volume is quite
close to the specified calibration point but can be improved. For the next iterations,
CW not only takes the theoretical dispensing behavior into account, but all actually
measured data as well. This allows for closer approximation of the requested
amounts i.e. the system is self learning during calibration.
Calibration Workshop 2
Note: in order to start this tool, one has to have Excel® installed on the computer.
In the folder “C:\Program Files\Fast and Fluid Management\IDD” you will find the file
“ProgressXML.xls.” This is an Excel® worksheet that will help you interpreting report
data. When you start this worksheet by clicking it, the following window appears:
Calibration Workshop 2
By clicking the button labeled “Fill Sheet from XML file”, and subsequently opening
the file you want to analyze, a window containing as many tab pages as channels,
available in the selected file, appears:
In each page you’ll find lists containing channel settings, dispense results, an
analysis of these results and a graphical visualization of these results.
4) A block containing statistical information that was derived from the reporting
results. Please see for more detailed explanations below.
5) A block containing the individual measurements obtained during reporting.
1) Average (or mean) yield: This describes the average amount that is dispensed
by the dispenser when a particular amount is requested.
2) Absolute error: This describes the difference between the requested amount
and the average yield.
3) Relative error: This describes the absolute error expressed as a percentage of
the requested amount.
4) Absolute standard deviation: The (absolute) standard deviation is a measure
of how widely spread the values in a set of measurements are. If many data
points are close to the mean then the standard deviation is small; if many data
points are far from the mean, then the standard deviation is large. If all the
data values are equal, then the standard deviation is zero.
5) Relative standard deviation: This describes the standard deviation expressed
as a percentage of the requested amount.
6) Relative maximum: This describes the difference between the largest
measurement and the requested amount as a percentage of the requested
amount.
7) Relative minimum: This describes the difference between the smallest
measurement and the requested amount as a percentage of the requested
amount.
8) 95% confidence factor: This factor is used in the calculation of the confidence
interval maximum and minimum.
9) Confidence interval maximum: This describes the upper boundary of the
interval in which, with a probability of 95%, the mean of another set of
measurements under identical circumstances will be situated.
10) Confidence interval minimum: This describes the lower boundary of the
interval in which, with a probability of 95%, the mean of another set of
measurements under identical circumstances will be situated.
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What do these statistical figures tell you about the behavior of this pump?