Startup and commissioning procedures for electronically line-shafted paper machine drives

Electronic line-shafting control has demonstrated very promising features when applied to paper machine drives. To apply this new control methodology, it is necessary to develop a starting procedure for each individual section and a method for setting the parameters of the virtual line-shaft drive and in-shafts. This paper proposes and evaluates startup and commissioning procedures for electronically line-shafted paper machine drives. The procedure for acceleration of the individual sections is implemented using virtual variable-ratio gearboxes that emulate the physical clutches and conical pulleys used in the era of line-shafts. System stiffness is implemented using virtual in-shafts with active damping. Evaluation shows that the proposed virtual clutch/conical pulley assembly and active damping allow smooth acceleration of each section and maintain well-behaved response during load disturbances for all operating conditions, even with different numbers of sections effectively connected.