Roll-to-roll systems handling web material such as papers, polymers, textiles or metals are very common in the industry. Web handling systems are recently used to produce new technologies such as printed semi-conductors, thin solar panels, printed electronics, etc. In web handling systems, one of the main objectives is to reach a good accuracy of web tension and web speed. For the controller tuning, one-dimensional models are used. Nevertheless they do not take into account several three-dimensional mechanical phenomena initiated by lateral components of the elastic web dynamics. It is therefore necessary to develop new models in order to optimize roll-to-roll systems.
This presentation focuses on optimized industrial control applied to web dynamics modeled in 3D, using finite element modeling. The effects of the controller tuning parameters and of the misaligned rollers are analyzed.