Temperature Control in a Laboratory Furnace with a B&R System

This paper deals with the design of a temperature control system for an electric laboratory furnace. The proposed complex control system consists of two basic parts: the monitoring system and temperature control algorithms. The task of the monitoring system is measuring and visualization of the temperatures in the furnace (furnace environment temperature, batch temperature, temperature on electric coils). Three control algorithms were proposed for temperature control. The first is simple control based on the "ON-OFF" principle, the second is heuristic-empirical control, and the third is an adaptive PSD controller, according to Marsik. Using the proposed control algorithms, it is possible to control the selected furnace temperature. The system was designed and verified in the B&R Automation Studio development environment using a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and an automation panel.