Design and Real-Time Control of an Electric Furnace with Three-Dimensional Heating

Currently, heating in electric ovens is generally achieved using heaters placed on the top and bottom surfaces. In some advanced ovens, heaters are installed on the back surface, allowing 3D heating. However, in these ovens, temperature measurements are obtained from a single point, making the temperature control unreliable. Additionally, this type of oven cannot provide homogeneous heating since it lacks heaters on the left, right, or front surfaces. In this study, a unique electric oven equipped with heaters and temperature sensors was designed and produced on all six surfaces. To model its performance, the heating behavior of the oven was derived using the Ziegler–Nichols tangent method, and the gain factors for the proportional (P), proportional-integral (PI), and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers were determined. Subsequently, real-time digital control of the oven was performed using on-off, P, PI, and PID controllers, which ensured a comprehensive evaluation of the oven’s control performance. The experimental results showed that homogeneous heating could only be achieved when all panels were energized. Additionally, the PI and PID controllers stabilized the system with a maximum steady-state error of 1.3 °C in all cases, demonstrating the accuracy of the derived system model and adequacy of the implemented control system.