MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ESTIMATION OF PRODUCT QUALITY IN THE INDUSTRIAL BATCH PRODUCTION OF A RESIN

A multivariate statistical estimator of the product quality is developed for an industrial batch polymerization process producing a resin. It is shown that, for the purpose of quality estimation, the complex series of operating steps through which a batch is run can be simplified to a sequence of three estimation phases. For each phase, a PLS model for the estimation of the product quality is developed. Switching between one phase to the other one is triggered by easily detectable landmark events occurring in a batch. The performance of the resulting three-phase PLS estimator is very satisfactory.