General Scientific Researches, Vol(3), No (1), February, 2015. pp.

5-10

TI Journals

General Scientific Researches

www.tijournals.com

ISSN:
2409-9872
Copyright 2015. All rights reserved for TI Journals.

Development of Furance with Microcontroller based Temperature

Control System
Babalola Michael Toluwase *
Physics Department, Federal University of Technology, P.M.B. 704, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Oluborode Gabriel Bayode

National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research, P.M.B. 6006, New Bussa, Niger State, Nigeria.

Ewetumo Theophilus
Physics Department, Federal University of Technology, P.M.B. 704, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author: tkayode2007@yahoo.co

Keywords

Abstract

Furnace
Microcontroller
Temperature
Control system
Refractory bricks

Furnace is an enclosed apparatus in which heat is produced, either by burning a fuel such as coal, or natural gas, or
by passing current through an electrical conductor.
The developed furnace with microcontroller based temperature control system consists of outer dimension of 60cm x
60cm x 75cm and inner dimension of 30cm x 18cm x 18 cm compartments. Nickel-chromium (80% nickel and
20%chromium) with ability to heat up the chamber up to 1280oC was coiled and used as a heating element. The inner
section of the furnace was heavily lagged with refractory bricks to conserve the heat. Type K thermocouple was used
to regulate and permits the temperature of the chamber to be fixed to desirable points. To improve the performance
of the furnace, temperature controllers which consist of high temperature sensor, pre-amplifier, buffer amplifier,
analog-digital converter, microcontroller and intelligent display was designed to monitor the temperature inside the
chamber. The temperature controller was calibrated using standard temperature probes such as mastech meter to
determine the accuracy and precision of the system. It shows that the furnace has perfect temperature control that
monitors the temperature of the chamber and responds appropriately. Testing was carried out to evaluate the
performance of the furnace. From the results obtained, it was observed that the test was successful as the furnace
heated up to 1082oC in less than 30mins with fast heating rate of 67oC/min and the efficiency of 71%, which is
comparable to muffle furnaces purchased from abroad. The lower cost of design of the furnace coupled with its good
heat retaining capacity, uniform heating rate, long estimated life time, safety and ease of maintenance. All these
justify the usage. The furnace can be used for drying, ashing, melting and firing.

1.

Introduction

A furnace is a device that produces heat or a device whose primary function is to apply heat to the interior of an enclosure called chamber. The
development of materials with properties that will suite service requirements is very fundamental in metallurgical and materials research [2]. In
metallic materials, heat treatment has been an age long process utilized to induce structural modification in the material to achieve some
desired properties. This process often relies on the use of furnaces to heat and cool the material following some predefined heating routine cycle
[5], [4], [3]. The desired structural modification can hardly be obtained without the use of the furnace. So furnaces play a crucial role in the
development of metallic materials and scientific research. Furnaces utilized for heat-treatment purposes are basically muffle furnaces and salt
bath furnaces. The working principles of both furnace types are well outlined [6]. Muffle furnaces are common in Nigeria because it is cheaper
and suitable for conventional heat-treatment processes.
Furnaces have numerous advantages that render it suitable in furnaces for metallurgical and scientific research. Such features include close
temperature and heat control, accurate analysis of melt, definite metal refining sequence, high thermal efficiency (as high as 70%), and
production of steel directly from pig iron and steel scrap.
Control of furnace temperature is also an important issue. Control systems are widely applied to satisfy safety requirement and regulation. When
considering the implementation of a control system in a furnace, several measures must be considered: control performance, process
performance and economic performance.
Furnace development requires some special materials that have properties that can withstand high temperature [2]. The amount of heat that is
produced in a furnace can be controlled. To minimize the heat loss by radiation, some furnaces, particularly those used in industries and
laboratories, are insulated. The temperature control system with microcontroller based temperature control supersedes these kinds of circuits [1].
Microcontroller control systems are equipped with special input output units appropriate in furnaces. Furnace has been already developed and
available everywhere. The available ones especially (laboratory furnace) are too costly and they are developed with low temperature. In this
work, a furnace of low cost with microcontroller control system with high temperature will be developed to solve this problem. The aim of this
project work is to develop an electric furnace of temperature range of 70 o C - 1100 oC with microcontroller based temperature control system
using locally available materials.

2.

Materials and methods

2.1 Production of Refractory Bricks from Kaolin Ore

Firstly, the raw materiels mainly kaolin were crushed with an impact crusher and the crushed raw materials are screened. Required raw
materials such as coarse grain of 4 kg, fine grain of 4 kg and powder of 4 kg were weighed. Proper amount of binder was added to make mud
material to form the brick. In this work, magnesium chloride with clean water (300 ml) was used as chemical binder. The material were
adequately and properly mixed and kneaded for 10 minutes after adding the binder to obtain homogeneous mud material. The mixed substance
were carried to the slinger machine where the product was moulded to form the required shape as shown in figure 1.

Babalola Michael Toluwase *, Oluborode Gabriel Bayode, Ewetumo Theophilus

General Scientific Researches Vol(3), No (1), February, 2015.

Before the brick was fired, they were transferred to the drying chamber at temperature of 200 C for about 12 hours to remove excess moisture.
The dried bricks were fired in kiln at 1500C for 52 hours.
2.2 Furnace chamber Fabrication
The furnace developed and constructed has two major parts. The first is heating chamber or the body of the furnace while the second is the
temperature control system. The constructed furnace is made of metal box with outer dimension of 60cm x 60cm x 75cm and inner dimension of
30cm x 18cm x 18cm. Two lengths of angle bar irons were used for the framework of the furnace. On the framework, refractory bricks of
6cmx4cmx4cm in dimension were prepared from kaolin and arranged inform of house blocks as a lagging materials inside the heating chamber. Iron
sheets of 2mm thick were welded to cover the entire body of the furnace (as in figure 2a).
Heating element made of Nichrome wire (80% nickel and 20% chromium) uniformly wound on the muffle was used as shown in figure 2b. It has ability
of maximum heating temperature of 1280C (2336F).

Figure 1. Fired Bricks

Figure 2a: Fabricated Furnace after Installation

Figure 2b: Interior of the furnace

2.3 Construction of temperature control circuits and system

The temperature control system unit consists of a high temperature sensor, pre-amplifier, buffer amplifier, analog-to-digital converter, micro-controller
and intelligent display unit as shown in block diagram in figure.3. A standard thermocouple is connected to a constant voltage source. The temperature
inside the furnace is sensed by the thermocouple and a thermo-emf is produced which is proportional to the measured temperature.

Sensor
(thermocouple)

Intelligent
Display

Pre-amplifier

Microcontroller

Buffer
amplifier

ADC

Figure 3. Block Diagram of Temperature Control System

The output voltage of the thermocouple is fed to an op amp connected as a non-inverting amplifier with a voltage gain Avf given by:

A vf 1

Rf
R1

The output of op amp is fed to a buffer which serves as a link between non-inverting amplifier and ADC. Unwanted high frequency noise was removed
by analog low pass filter and digitalized voltage is read and processed by microcontroller. The temperature is finally displayed on a suitable digital
display which connected to a port 3 of the microcontroller. The complete circuit diagram of temperature control system is shown in figure 4.
Type K (Chromel&Alumel) thermocouple was used in this project work according to R.S. Catalogue (1993) it have the sensitivity of 40.6V/oC
at 25oC.
2.4 Operation of the ADC
Figure 5 shows the AD7701 operating in the Asynchronous Communications (AC) mode (MODE pin tied to 5 V). The SCLK pin was
configured as an input, and data was transmitted in two bytes, each in a universal asynchronous receiver and transmitter (UART) compatible
interface that allows the AD7701 to transmit data asynchronously to AT89C52 Microcontroller with one start bit and two stop bits.
Data transmission was initiated by chip select (CS) going low. If CS is low on a falling edge of SCLK, the AD7701 begins transmitting an 8-bit
data byte (DB8 to DB15) with one start bit and two stop bits, as in Figure 6. The SDATA output will then go three-state. The second byte was
transmitted by bringing CS low again and DB0 to DB7 are transmitted in the same format as the first byte. When data ready (DRDY) is high, the
output (pin 28) of ADC is at high impedance. The data received by microcontroller were processed and then compared the temperature values
after conversion with the preset values. If the measured value is less than preset value, the relay is OFF. The flowchart in figure 7 illustrated the

Development of Furance with Microcontroller based Temperature Control System

General Scientific Researches Vol(3), No (1), February, 2015.

L ED
7

8 7

8 7 8

7 8 9

5
V

Rf
5
V

22k

S/H AMP

10k

1 1
0 1

Lm358

Lm358

ANALOG

LOW-PASS
FILTER

Buffer Amplifier

COMPARATOR
+

DIGITAL

FILTER

Sensor
R
1k
2

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
1
41
13
12
10
1
15
16
17
18
29
0

4
30
39
83
37
63
35
34
3
32
13
20
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
2
1

T89C52 Microcontroller
DAC

Non- inverting Amplifier

General Sigma-Delta ADC

Figure 4. Complete circuit diagram of microcontroller based control system

Figure 5. Shows basic connection of AD7701

Figure 6. Timing diagram of Asynchronous communication mode of AD7701

1 1 1
2 3 4

Babalola Michael Toluwase *, Oluborode Gabriel Bayode, Ewetumo Theophilus

General Scientific Researches Vol(3), No (1), February, 2015.

Figure 7. The flowchart of the temperature controller

2.5 Testing and Examination of the Furnace

The following tests were carryout to check the performance and efficiency of the furnace. (i).The first test were carry out to check if there is any
linkage that can cause electric shock. The Heating system was connected to mains power supply and switched on; electric tester was used to test
all the part of the system including the heating element to check may be there is any linkage that may cause electric shock.
(ii)The second test of the system was simple heating experiment. The system was run empty to check may be the system respond and cut off
when reach the pre-set temperature and also check its maximum temperature it can reach with the corresponding time. The test was successful as
the furnace heated up to 1082oC in less than 30mins.

o
(a) 406 oC
(b) 1082 C
Figure 8. (a, b). Show readings at certain temperatures

(a) Load condition

(b) No load condition

Fig. 9 (a, b)

(iii) The third test is firing test. The furnace was tested under load and no loaded condition. The pre-set temperature is 800oC. Some bricks plates
were placed inside the heating chamber and fired as shown in figure 9. The time reach the pre-set temperature in each case was recorded. The
reach time for no load condition is 12mins while for load condition is 17mins.

Development of Furance with Microcontroller based Temperature Control System

General Scientific Researches Vol(3), No (1), February, 2015.

Table 1. Showing Temperature Variation of Mastech and Furnace

Time (min)

10

11

12

15

16

Temp. of the furnace (oC)

67

134

201

268

353

402

469

534

600

667

734

800

860

879

Temp. of the Mastech (oC)

66

133

202

269

351

399

468

535

600

666

733

801

859

Time (min)

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

29

30

Temp. of the furnace (o C)

894

909

924

939

954

969

983

997

1012

1026

1039

1067

1082

Temp. of the Mastech (oC)

894

907

924

938

953

969

984

996

1011

1026

1039

1067

1081

879

Table 2. Shows Cost Analysis of the furnace

MATERIALS
1mm Steel Sheet
angle bar
Body Filler
Paint
Kaolin
Bricks production
Binder
Thermocouple
Welding Electrode
Heating element
Wires (Industrial and Resistance)
Control system
Transportation
Labour
TOTAL

QUANTITY
2 Sheets
2 Lengths
1
1
2 bags(750 kg)

Lot
3
1

COST( N)
5100
1900
450
700
3000
10000
380
1200
700
14100
1300
23200
26000
22500
96,130

2.7 Calibration of Temperature System

A mastech meter that has the same type of thermocouple and resolution was placed together with the system at room temperature. The
temperature indicated by mastech meter at room temperature was 28.5oC. The Rf in figure 4 was adjusted until equal temperature were obtained.
Then the thermocouple of the meter was inserted into the furnace together with the thermocouple of the temperature control system and the
readings shown in table 1 were obtained at every 1 minute interval.
2.8 Cost analysis
The bill for Engineering Management and Evaluation for the newly designed furnace is presented in Table 2. The total cost is #96,130 ($612.29),
although the cost of other minor accessories such as Timer, Switch and Plug was not incorporated. The minimum cost of acquiring a furnace of
the same temperature range from abroad ranges between #314,000 - #549,500 ($2,000 - $3,500). This clearly indicates that the newly designed
furnace is cheaper since the parts were sourced locally. The most expensive part of the developed furnace is the heating element which was
purchased at the rate of #14,100.00 ($89.24). The average life span of the element is over 20 years if the manufacturers guide is followed and the
recommended simple routine maintenance performed regularly.
If the furnace is to be produced on a large scale, the cost of acquiring the furnace will be cheaper since components will be purchased in bulk
which will attract some discounts

3.

Results and discussion

The performance and working efficiency of the furnace was evaluated by determining the furnace heating rate and ability to maintain constant
temperature. The furnace has been tested under load and no load conditions. The time to the pre-set temperature has been measured for each
condition. For the no load condition it was 12mins while for load condition it was 17mins. The time reach in load condition takes more time
because of physic-chemical reactions [7] such as dehydration, decomposition, evaporation and reaction during the fired state. The heating rate
was evaluated using the pre-set temperature and the corresponding time taken.

(1)

The efficiency of the furnace was calculated using

= 0.24

(2)

Where, Q is heat energy (kcal), p is power (watts), t is the time (mins)

( )=

100 %

(3)

Where is efficiency, Q nl is heat energy of no load condition, Ql is heat energy of load.

From the results obtained, it was observed that the tests were successful with fast heating rate of 67oC/min and the efficiency of 71%. The result
shows that it required less than 30 minutes for the furnace to heat up to 1082oC. The temperature of 0 - 1082oC was achieved at resolution of
1oC. Throughout the tests, no crack was observed in the refractory lining, the refractory material used showed high insulation and thermal
stability.
The temperature controller is digital which makes the reading sensed to be accurate; also there is regular temperature check using an external
probe to calibrate the temperature controller thereby guaranteeing effective temperature reading.

Babalola Michael Toluwase *, Oluborode Gabriel Bayode, Ewetumo Theophilus

10

General Scientific Researches Vol(3), No (1), February, 2015.

1200

Temperature (oC)

1000
800
600

Series2

400

Series3

200
0
1

11

16
Time (min)

21

26

Figure 10. Graph of temperature variation of mastech and furnace

Comparing the readings obtained from the calibration of the system in a time interval under the different conditions. It shows that the sensor was
specified with accuracy. The accuracy indicates how closely the sensor can measure the actual or real temperature values. The more accurate a
sensor is, better it will perform. Table 2 shows the result of the calibration of the system. It shows that the furnace has perfect temperature
control that monitors the temperature of the chamber and responds appropriately.
Also, figure 10 shows the variation in temperature reading between the probe meter and the temperature control of the system. It shows that
there is no significant difference between the temperature reading of the meter and the control system.

4.

Conclusion

A step-by-step approach in designing a microcontroller based system for temperature measurement in furnace has been followed. According to
the study and analysis of various parts of the system, a design has been carried out and tested. The results obtained from the temperature
measurement have shown that the system perform well under all the conditions.
The development and performance evaluation of a furnace with microcontroller based temperature control system using locally sourced
materials was carried out in this project work. This clearly indicates that the newly designed furnace is cheaper since the parts were sourced
locally. The results obtained during testing of the furnace reveal that the furnace has a heating rate of 67oC/min and efficiency of 71%, which are
comparable to existing standard furnaces attaining a temperature of well over 1082oC within 30mins. The lower cost of design of the furnace
coupled with its good performance justifies the usage. The furnace can be used for drying, ashing, melting, and firing. Using microcontroller for
the temperature control provided effective, efficient, reliable and robust result.

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[2]
[3]
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[5]
[6]
[7]

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