Wisconsin Oven Corporation announced the shipment of a 2-Zone indirect gas-fired heavy-duty walk-in oven to a global manufacturer in the composite industry. Wisconsin Oven announced that this project passed the stringent temperature uniformity requirements to meet BAC 5621 Class 1 Furnaces and Instrumentation Type D specifications.
The composite curing oven has a maximum operating temperature of 450°F and overall chamber dimensions of 12’0” wide x 35’0” long (with center door raised) x 9’0” high. It uses a horizontal air flow configuration to maximize heating rates and uniformity. Three total guaranteed temperature uniformity tests were performed to ±5°F, each at set points of 150°F, 250°F, 350°F, and 400°F to meet BAC 5621 Class 1 Furnaces and Instrumentation Type D specifications; verified through a 50-point profile (with center door raised), and a 25-point profile (with center door closed) performed separately. All three tests were conducted in an empty oven chamber under static operating conditions.
This industrial oven has sufficient capability to heat 2,000 pounds of material from 70°F to 350°F at an average rate of 10°F per minute. This oven features three total vertical lift, electrically operated doors; the center door (when in the closed/lowered position) separates each zone into individual chambers. When in the raised position, this center door allows the customer to use one main large heating chamber. Each zone’s exhaust blowers included both VFDs and modulating dampers to allow a lowered exhaust rate during heating, and capability for accelerated cooling of product during the cooling stage. The vacuum system included two 2 HP rotary vane vacuum pumps, one for each zone, and a Eurotherm controller for controlling the pressure of each vacuum header. This composite curing oven also featured access doors within both end vertical lift doors, personnel safety interior pull cords (to automatically open both end doors), and interior lighting.
“Curing is crucial in the manufacturing process for composite materials. This composite curing oven was designed with 2 zones to give our customer the flexibility to process composite parts of different sizes. It also features an advanced vacuum and control system,” said Doug Christiansen, application engineer.
Unique features of this composite curing oven include:
- Guaranteed temperature uniformity of ±5°F at setpoints of 150° F through 400°F.
- High efficiency tongue and groove panel assemblies.
- Interior panel skins, ductwork, and oven floor constructed of 304 stainless steel.
- Two indirect industrial air heat burners.
- Programmable logic controller and human-machine interface.
- Programmable recipe temperature controller with auto-tune function.
- Thermocouple jack panels for load temperature monitoring with guaranteed soak feature of leading/lagging part temperatures (to trigger the start of the soak segments).
- Access doors in both end vertical lift doors.
- Interior lighting.
- Chamber divider door to separate zones.
- Turn-key installation service completed at the customer’s facility.
Final temperature uniformity surveys and calibration services performed at the customer’s facility by an accredited third-party testing company (once completed system is qualified for production).
This composite curing oven was fully factory tested and adjusted prior to shipment from our facility. All safety interlocks are checked for proper operation and the equipment is operated at the normal and maximum operating temperatures. An extensive quality assurance check list was completed to ensure the equipment met all Wisconsin Oven quality standards.
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