Newton Designs

Oven Final Product

In MAE 334 two groupmates and I were tasked to come up with a final project that builds upon the Arduino skills we had learned in class. We were adamant of building something that would be applicable to our day-to-day lives. The current offerings for 3-D printer filament dryers were lackluster with overpriced dehydrators that could barely hit 100°C. We set our sights on building an oven that could hold 120°C for at least eight hours to anneal standard engineering filaments. We accomplished this by insulating the oven with 2” R13.1 insulation board that will withstand 120°C for sustained time ranges. We then decided to use a 400W PTC heater that would be controlled using a 120 VAC relay that was controlled by the Arduino. This allowed us to implement a transfer function that would pulse the heater on and off to reach the steady state temperature required. We were able to accomplish our goal of 120°C and hit steady state temperatures with minimal overshoot!

Oven High/Low Voltage Wiring

A more detailed view of the electronics controls. A 120V AC power supply is housed on top that sends power to a 120V relay. The relay is controlled by the Arduino and is then sent directly to the heater. A base transfer function was generated that pulses the heater based on the target temperature and the measured temperature. the graph below shows a measured temperature and target temperature over a ten minute period

Temperature vs. Time Graph

Individual Responsibilities:

• Selected appropriate insulation and materials given our max temperature.
• Designed majority of the filament dryer in Onshape.
• Fabricated majority of the dryer including making wire connections, cutting material to size, and sealing the interior of the oven.