Inferential temperature control system
AssigneeNordson Corporation
InventorJohn M. Raterman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system manages the temperature of thermoplastic material by initiating a default heating cycle in response to a sensor failure. The system may thus continue to heat the thermoplastic material according to the default heating cycle until the sensor can be repaired or replaced. A system controller implements the default heating cycle using a stored profile. That is, the controller causes a heating element to generate heat according to a default heating profile retrieved from a memory. The profile may be determined using historical heating data, user input and/or a factory setting.
Claims16
A method for controlling a heating element in a dispensing system configured to dispense a thermoplastic material, the method comprising:
- heating a component of the dispensing system with a heating element;
- measuring the temperature of the component of the dispensing system with a temperature sensor;
- determining whether the temperature sensor has failed;
- in response to determining that the temperature sensor has failed, retrieving a default heating profile stored by a controller that includes information that can used by the controller for operating the heating element;
- and
- operating the heating element according to the default heating profile to heat the component.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.