Benefits of advanced temperature controller system

 By John Lim,Technical Sales Manager, Meiban International

 Conventional temperature controllers mainly uses Proportional or PID controls with some having soft start controls working together with a series of mechanical and solid state relays in each of the control zones to supply heat. PID is one of the most popular methods of measuring temperatures due to its accuracy and stable control of temperatures in the plastic industry.
 All these controls are dependent on the feedback from RTD/ thermocouples and the accuracies of the readings can be affected by its location of the sensing point and their material. They are usually housed in bulky cabinets that take up space in the already crowded injection machine areas. Taking a closer look at our RTD/ thermocouples one of the most commonly used standard in the plastic industries are the "J" type thermocouples. Thermocouples are essentially making use of 2 different materials device that when heat are introduced it creates a potential difference at its measuring junction which is like converting heat energy into electrical energy measured in mV. Because the voltage is small, amplifiers have to be used to amplify the signals in order not to let the surrounding noises drowned out its signal and the conventional way of measuring temperatures from the sensing point to the temperature controllers have to run through long cables to relay the signals.
 Different controller makers use different types of mould connectors, which whenever there is any change of controllers the mould connector will have to be changed. When human errors occur it may result in thermocouples wires wrongly connected to the heater supply and getting them shorted out which can be costly and time consuming.
 PICCO?'s design is based on the concept of a compact system that no external mould cables and bulky cabinet are needed. Each PICCO? controls 2 zones and the unit itself can be mounted directly onto the tool which not only saves space but it is also cost effective as after attaching to the tool the controller follows wherever the tool goes and also helps to reduce the need for any additional controllers that need to be standby in the event heat is needed to remove or service the hot runner outside the production floor or rewiring work in the event any change of the controllers.
 As we know thermocouple produces a specific millivoltage at a specific temperature; therefore PICCO? can achieve accurate reading by taking the feedback of the amount of voltage (mV) against actual temperature to achieve the required temperature accurately. Using proprietary technology, the company can supply accurate and consistent temperature to the heaters similar to PID controls. PICCO? has 5 preset temperatures which cover a wide range of commonly used plastic materials processing temperature for the plastic industries for both technical and consumer parts.
 The controller comes with "WAIT" function which is about 70% of processing temperature to function as both startup and standby temperature instead of soft start controls for the heaters which may take up anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes to complete the soft start process before going into auto heating mode. By removing the need for long mould cables the temperature reading are accurate as there will be much less interference from external noise from stray electrical and magnetic fields.
 Any need to fine tune the temperature can easily be achieved through the 2 calibrating screws in the front of PICCO?. Using the corresponding readout from the Reference Wheel the user can recalibrate his required temperature by basing on the mV output reading from PICCO? through a mutlimeter. This unique design means the controller will be less likely to be accidentally tampHomme