Patent ID: 8490684

Claim:
A temperature control device which performs temperature control of a fluid, comprising: a plurality of fluid reservoir units which are arranged in series, or in parallel, or in a combination of parallel and series, the plurality of fluid reservoir units being arranged along a conduit through which fluid flows, and the fluid reservoir units further include heaters or coolers; an outlet temperature sensor which is provided to an outlet of a first one of the plurality of fluid reservoir units; a second one of the plurality of fluid reservoir units has no outlet temperature sensor; an inlet temperature sensor which measures an inlet temperature of the fluid which flows into the temperature control device; an estimator configured to: modelize the fluid reservoir units having the heaters or coolers, and estimate an outlet temperature of the fluid at the outlet of the second one of the fluid reservoir units, to which no outlet temperature sensor is provided, based on the inlet temperature which has been measured by the inlet temperature sensor; and a control unit configured to: acquire individual target temperatures, which are target temperatures for the fluid at the outlets of each of the plurality of fluid reservoir units, including a first individual target temperature corresponding to the first one of the fluid reservoir units and a second individual target temperature corresponding to the second one of the fluid reservoir units; determine a first manipulated variable for the first one of the plurality of fluid reservoir units to which the outlet temperature sensor is provided, on the basis of deviations between an outlet temperature which has been measured by the outlet temperature sensor and the first individual target temperature, the first manipulated variable being a calculated value; determine a second manipulated variable for the second one of the plurality of fluid reservoir unit to which no outlet temperature sensor is provided, on the basis of deviations between an estimated outlet temperature which has been estimated by the estimator and the second individual target temperature, the second manipulated variable being a calculated value; and control the outlet temperatures of the fluid reservoir units by operating heaters or coolers on the basis of the first and second manipulated variables which have been determined.