Patent ID: 7317175

Claim:
A control system for controlling the temperature of a thermoforming oven, comprising: a plurality of temperature sensors, one provided within select individual zones of the oven and configured to provide a master input for the zone; a plurality of temperature-regulating devices at least some of which are located in select individual zones of the thermoforming oven, the plurality of temperature-regulating devices being individually configured to regulate the temperature of the thermoforming oven; a controller having a user interface, processing circuitry, memory, and a control algorithm, a recipe provided in the memory correlating operating control settings for each of the temperature-regulating devices within each select individual zone, the user interface including a configuration menu with control settings for selecting a control strategy to select a target setpoint temperature value and adjust power delivered to each of the plurality of temperature-regulating devices in the selected individual zone responsive to a detected temperature value from the master input for the zone; wherein the selected target setpoint temperature of the select individual zones is set by a user, and the target setpoint temperature is realized by controlling the temperature of one or more of the temperature-regulating devices pursuant to the recipe correlating operating control settings for the temperature regulating devices within each select individual zone.