West Pro-EC44 Application Note
Temperature Control in
Applicaon
Batch Furnace Applicaons
Challenge
To achieve consistently high quality within same
and mulple batches of products, being processed
in large industrial oven and furnace applicaons.
Soluon
Use dual loop controllers with gain scheduling
control funconality for advanced temperature
precision and accuracy.
Applicaon
Batch Furnace Applicaons
Challenge
To achieve consistently high quality within same
and mulple batches of products, being processed
in large industrial oven and furnace applicaons.
Soluon
Use dual loop controllers with gain scheduling
control funconality for advanced temperature
precision and accuracy.
Batch Furnace Applications
Application Story
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Temperature Control in
Typical Batch Furnace Applicaons
• Coangs for metal substrates such as
alloy wheels to protect against abrasion
• Scratch resistance and
an-reecve (an-glare) coangs for
glass lenses
• Glazing on ceramics such as le nishes
to prevent wear and corrosion
Typical Batch Furnace Applicaons
• Coangs for metal substrates such as
alloy wheels to protect against abrasion
• Scratch resistance and
an-reecve (an-glare) coangs for
glass lenses
• Glazing on ceramics such as le nishes
to prevent wear and corrosion
Batch Furnace Applications
In a batch furnace
application, an industrial
oven or furnace is
used to bake a coating
or substrate on to the
product. Often, due to
the size of the product
batch or large product
size an industrial oven or
furnace with a number of
temperature control zones
is required.
Batch Furnace Fusion
Application for Glass Lenses
Example – As part of the
manufacturing of eye glass
lenses a batch furnace fusion
process is used to apply an
anti-reective coating. This is
an incredibly thin layer that
is applied to the glass that
prevents reections from the
front and back surface of the
glass.
In this process the industrial
oven is split into 4 zones for the
purpose of temperature
control. Each zone
requires its own control
loop to ensure an even
temperature is achieved
throughout the oven.
This is essential for
product quality.
Traditionally a master
controller was used as
a programmer
to set the
temperature
prole for
the process
application; in
this example
the master
would then
talk to 3
further
controllers
(Slaves), one for each of the
zones. Each PID controller
would be tuned at a setpoint
in the middle of the operating
range.
Why Use a Dual Loop
Temperature Controller?
There are now products
available that bring greater
functionality to batch furnace
process, improving control and
quality. In the above example
two dual loop controllers
could be used, immediately
making a signicant reduction
on cost. Cost is not the only
factor though; the temperature
control and quality can also be
signicantly improved.
By using a controller such
as the new Pro-EC44 from
West Control Solutions,
gain scheduling can be
introduced to the process.
What is Gain Scheduling?
Gain scheduling is used
for applications that have a
wide setpoint range or where
thermal conditions change
in the working range e.g a
vacuum furnace changing
from atmospheric pressure to
vacuum. With gain scheduling
you are able to tune for multiple
set-points during the process
allowing you to effectively
tune for the different ranges
throughout the process
This results in much greater
precision with the temperature
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