Automatic blending control system

Claim 2

In an automatic system adapted to maintain the magnitude of a property of a blended liquid stream substantially constant, such property being affected by the percentage of one particular component in the blended stream: the combination of means for initially establishing an approximate percentage set point for said one component, an analyzer receptive of said blended stream for measuring a property thereof and for producing an output proportional to the magnitude of such property, means responsive To the analyzer output for automatically adjusting the component percentage set point, to thereby maintain said property magnitude substantially constant, means establishing a plurality of predetermined quantitative limits directly on said component percentage set point, and means automatically inhibiting further automatic adjustment of such set point in the direction which caused the limit to be reached, once any of these limits on such set point has been reached.

Claim 3

Combination of claim 1, including also means for activating an alarm upon the reaching of any one of the said predetermined limits by said component percentage set point, as the same is automatically adjusted.

Claim 4

In an automatic system adapted to maintain the value of a specific property of a blended liquid stream substantially constant, such specific property being affected mainly by the percentage of one particular liquid component in the blended stream and said system operating in response to an applied percentage set point for said one component: an arrangement for controlling the percentage set point for said one component comprising means for initially establishing an approximate component percentage set point, an analyzer receptive of said blended stream for measuring said specific property thereof and for producing an output electrical signal representative of the value of said specific property, means for comparing the analyzer output signal with an analyzer set point voltage and for developing signals of opposite senses in response to respective variations in opposite directions of said analyzer output signal with respect to said analyzer set point voltage, non-mechanical means for utilizing signals developed by said last-named means for automatically varying the component percentage set point either upwardly or downwardly, as determined by the sense of said developed signals, means establishing a plurality of predetermined quantitative limits directly on said component percentage set point, and means automatically inhibiting further automatic variation of such set point in the direction which caused the limit to be reached, once any of these limits on such set point has been reached.

Claim 5

In an automatic system adapted to maintain the value of a specific property of a blended liquid stream substantially constant, such specific property being affected mainly by the percentage of one particular liquid component in the blended stream and said system operating in response to an applied percentage set point for said one component: an arrangement for controlling the percentage set point for said one component comprising means for initially establishing an approximate component percentage set point, an analyzer receptive of said blended stream for measuring said specific property thereof and for producing an output electrical signal representative of the value of said specific property, means for comparing the analyzer output signal with an analyzer set point voltage and for developing signals of opposite senses in response to respective variations in opposite directions of said analyzer output signal with respect to said analyzer set point voltage, non-mechanical means for utilizing signals developed by said last-named means for automatically varying the component percentage set point either upwardly or downwardly, as determined by the sense of said developed signals, means establishing a plurality of predetermined quantitative limits directly on said component percentage set point, and means automatically inhibiting further automatic variation of such set point in the direction which caused the limit to be reached, once any of these limits on such set point has been reached.

Claim 6

Arrangement of claim 3, including also means for activating an alarm upon the reaching of any one of the said predetermined limits by said component percentage set point, as the same is automatically varied.

Claim 7

Arrangement set forth in claim 1, wherein the means for utilizing includes a plurality of gates arranged in a digital array and fed by pulses from a pulse generator, and means for supplying signals derived from said developed signals, and representative of the same, as control signals to said gates, thereby to control the number of pulses passing through such gates.

Claim 8

Arrangement set forth in claim 3, wherein the last-mentioned means inhibits variation of the component percentage set point downwardly from zero.

Claim 9

Arrangement set forth in claim 3, wherein the last-mentioned means inhibits variation of the component percentage set point upwardly above a preset maximum.

Claim 10

Arrangement set forth in claim 3, wherein the last-mentioned means inhibits variation of the component percentage set point beyond a preset limit, in either direction.