Automatic Control of Tea Manufacturing Process (Part 1)

Sensing of Tea Leaf State on Hot Air Drying

Abstract

In order to develop the automatic control system for tea manufacturing processes using of a computer, some methods to detect the tea states which are necessary for controlling the processes were examined. The system to develop is based on the multi-input and multi-output feedback system which detects the tea states such as temperature, moisture content, and dampness, and controls the processing conditions such as supplied air temperature, air quantity, rolling pressure, the number of revolution of main shaft, etc. according to those. This paper described the sensing of tea states in the tea manufacturing processes where hot air dryers are used, and discussed the measurement methods of tea leaf temperature, moisture content, and dampness which was defined for adapting to control.