The IES is a system of sensors and software that controls the ram speed and billet temperature in order to maintain a constant exit temperature. Like a cruise control in a car stabilizing the speed the IES is a cruise control for the press stabilizing the exit temperature.

Reliable product quality prerequisites keeping the exit temperature constant. Mechanical properties are not guaranteed if the profile is too cold. Surface defects can appear if the profile is too hot.

The IES continuously gets information from the press about current exit temperature and press pressure. It calculates the time it takes the pressure to decrease from break through pressure by 4bar.

• At the first three billets after a die change, the press is operated by the press driver as usual: he determines ram speed and billet temperature.
• During the extrusion of the 3rd billet, the IES monitors the exit temperature and selects the highest temperature measured (plus 2°C) as the target exit temperature.
• Starting with the 4th billet the IES now tries to keep the exit temperature at the target temperature. If the actual temp. is lower than the target the IES increases ram speed. If the exit temp. is higher than the target the IES decreases the ram speed. By doing so the IES changes the speed within the billet (“dynamic speed control”)
• At the end of each billet IES calculates by how many percent in average the last billet was changed in speed. This average dynamic offset determines the base speed for the next billet. This way the base speed is change billet by billet (“step speed control”)
• At the end of each billet the IES calculates whether the break through pressure was at the maximum of the press and how long it took the pressure to decrease by 4bar. If the max. press pressure was not reached or only for less than 3 seconds the IES decreases the billet head temperature for the next billet called. If the max. press pressure was reached but it took longer than 8 seconds for the pressure to decrease by 4bar the billet head temperature is increased for the next billet called.
• At the end of each billet the IES calculates whether the exit speed was kept constant over the last push. If the speed had to be reduced over the billet (in order to maintain constant exit temperature), the IES reduces the foot temperature of the next billet called. If the exit speed was increased over the billet but the exit temperature was still too cold the IES increases the foot temperature for the next billet called.

The right target temperature is currently unknown. In any case it is depending on the product. It should always be between 540°C and 580°C. Below 540°C the mech. properties are not guaranteed, above 580°C the risk of getting surface defects is very high. Start with an average temperature and observe the surface quality. The hottest spot may be located inside or underneath the profile, therefore inaccessible for the temperature measurement.If the temperature acquired at the 4th billet is obviously too low or too high, change it manually to a reasonable value.

• Let IES increase press speed with the current target temperature.
• You can change the target temperature manually at any time. The higher the target temperature the faster the IES will try to extrude. Check surface quality (outside and inside of the profile) immediately after granting higher temperatures.
• Even a minor increase to the target temperature will result in a significant gain in speed.
• Check whether the IES reaches the target temperature at all. The IES will increase (and decrease) the ram speed only within the given limits. It is possible that the IES will not meet the target temperature even will full speed increase or decrease. In this case you should grant a bigger speed offset, or manually move the sensor to reach the point where temperature and emissivity are both within acceptable ranges. All dies of the same product should be run at the same temperature. All dies of the same family should be checked whether they can be run at the same temperature.

No. The IES stores the actual target temperature of the last order for each die and it retrieves this value at the start of a new order. But with the 3rd billet in this new order, the IES acquires the actual temperature and overwrites the value loaded from the database.

You as the press driver can determine by how much the IES may change ram speed and billet temperature. That is what the offsets are for.

The offset 5+5 at the speed control are displayed as percent yielding +-10%.
The offset 10+30 at the billet temperature are displayed in °C yielding +-10°C for the head and +-30°C for the foot temperature.

At the dynamic speed control the IES changes the speed during the push of a billet over the base speed. At the step speed control the IES changes the speed from billet to billet. With the dyn. speed control the IES compensates thermal differences. With the step speed the IES gains speed generally.

No. The dyn. speed control should not be below 5% in order to grant the IES the right to balance out temperatures. The step control determines how far away from the base speed the IES may change the speed. Here, a zero can be right in case a speed limit shall be in place. Also, 20% can be right in case there is no speed limit in sight.

If the exit temperature for whatever reason is much too high the IES must be allow to run slower in order to drop the exit temperature and prevent tearing or other surface defects. If you limit the dyn. offset to 2% the IES will not be able to slow down in case of an emergency. The IES will only extruded slower if the exit temperature if hotter than the target temperature. Therefore, you should always pay attention to a correct setting of the target temperature.

If the downtime appeared during

• pushing the billet the behaviour of the IES does not change;
• billet change the IES will not use the information about breakthrough pressure and time to control the next billet temperature.

You have to check the quench exit temperature yourself and verify that this temperature and quench rate is appropriate for the profile. If the IES runs faster the quench rate decreases. You will have to adapt the quench setting or limit the extrusion speed if need be.

The IES can be equipped with additional thermal cameras to detect quench exit temperatures and to calculate quench rates. In this case the IES will then determine automatically whether an increase in speed is feasible.

It is always possible that setting a speed limit is necessary. In order to do so

• set the dynamic speed control to 5%
• switch off both speed controls
• set your base speed 5% below target speed (to 9.5mm/s in this case)
• switch on dyn. speed control only

The IES will now increase ram speed by 5% over the base speed yielding 10mm/s. At the same time, the IES is allowed to decrease by 5% from the base speed if need be.

Important note: If introducing the speed limit is caused by the die, please provide the die shop with a sample of good and poor quality labeled with the individual speed, product and die information and ask die shop to correct the die accordingly to that higher speed.

At a total crash (e.g. IES -PC is down, software closed …) the IES automatically turns off and the press behaves just if there had never been a IES that means all inputs are regularly processed at the press panel.

No software is free from malfunction. Yet sometimes it might look like a malfunction but is in fact simply doing what it was told. It is your task as the press driver to ensure proper function of the IES by checking whether

• the camera is correctly focusing the profile and therefore detects a correct temperature. In case of misalignment you should manually position the camera.
• the target temperature acquired at the 3rd billet is a reasonable value. In case of unplausible values you can change the target at any time.
• the IES reaches the target temperature and keeps it constant. If that is not the case you can either enlarge the limits or choose a different base speed at the press panel.

Right now the IES is not programmed in a way to specifically support multi billet extrusion. The IES will observe that break through time and pressure vary from billet to billet. As the IES´s reaction is averaging out the behaviour of several subsequent billets (moving average) it will tend to set step speed and billet temperature to an average value.

The dyn. speed control will react in any case. The short billet will presumably be a little bit too hot therefore slowed down over what would be achievable if the short billet was as cold as it should be. The long one will be a little bit too cold and therefore start slow. Multi billet extrusion is possible with the IES; however it might be reasonable to keep the billet temperature uncontrolled to be ideal for the long billet.

For the IES a two-push-billet is just like a downtime during the push of a billet. The IES will react all normal.

During the current order, the IES reduces the billet temperature by 20°C which is fine. Within the next few billets, the die will be changed. Now the IES keeps decreasing the billet temperature, therefore the first billet of the new die will also be reduced. How can I prevent that?” => “Currently, the IES does not know about a pending die change therefore it keeps controlling the billet temperature. Once you called the last billet of an order, you have to disable the billet temperature control at the IES. After the 3rd billet of the next order, the IES will automatically switch itself on again. It is planned to modify the IES so it knows about the pending die change itself and switches off the billet temperature control.

As soon as you change the alignment of the camera, the temperature read will change and still the IES will control the press using the measurement – following the virtual change of temperature by changing the ram speed. In order to prevent this, you have to disable both speed controls and enable them when finished with aligning the camera.

NEW RELEASE: At the end of the manual alignment, automatically the IES will do an autocapture and set the new target temperature.

The IES will change speed and billet temperature around the set values within the range you permitted to it. If you observe that the IES uses one of the offset limits to the full extent, you should check to

• enlarge the offset limit or
• set the correct target temperature and do a new autocapture (deactivate/activate)

Any hot object radiates energy – the hotter the more (intensity), depending on the material more or less (emissivity). Aluminium itself radiates only a little amount of its energy (that is why you don´t feel the warmth being close to hot aluminium with your bare hand – unlike steel). The thermal camera measures the intensity and emissivity of the object it is directed to so it can detect whether the object is made of aluminium (the emissivity matches the valid range for aluminium).

• If a die runs the 1st time with IES the camera is positioned in the middle. At the start of the 2nd the camera pans from one side to the other and returns to the optima spot measured on aluminium surface, where temperature and emissivity are in correct range. This position is kept until the end of the order or manual repositioning and is saved in the database.
• If a die did already run with IES the camera is placed directly at the save position.

As long as the camera does not read any plausible temperature and emissivity, the control stays deactivated even if the buttons are green. If the camera does not read any signal for a longer period of time, it restarts panning – but only if auto-aiming is active.

The IES detect that the signal was lost during a downtime. In this case it will not initiate a new scan but stay where it is and also keep all settings.

At the IES: not at all. This would not make sense as the reaction time of the IES is much too long to control press pressures. So limiting the IES in terms of pressure would not guarantee not having that pressure. Therefore, the pressure must be limited directly at the press panel. The IES will then react accordingly by setting billet temp. and speed.

The IES does not (and does not need to) detect any order change. If the billet length changes with the order change the IES will notice a change in break through time and pressure and adapt to it.

Currently, the IES does not know about a pending die change therefore it keeps controlling the billet temperature. Once you called the last billet of an order, you have to disable the billet temperature control at the IES. After the 3rd billet of the next order, the IES will automatically switch itself on again. It is planned to modify the IES so it knows about the pending die change itself and switches off the billet temperature control.