What’s a typical day like for you at Verder Scientific/Carbolite Gero?
Our office here in North America is primarily focused on sales, technical support, and service for Verder Scientific products. So really, a typical day for the Carbolite Gero team in Pennsylvania is supporting our customers, providing quotations, answering technical questions, and shipping. We provide custom equipment as well, and that offers its own challenges. We ensure that the specifications for these custom units are clear, while ensuring the engineers and end-users are on the same page. We also provide onsite and web-based trainings.
One thing that has always really impressed me about Verder Scientific and Carbolite Gero is how they strive to improve the product and improve the knowledge base about the product, both with end-users and Verder Scientific representatives worldwide.
What role does Verder Scientific play in the heat-treat industry?
Verder Scientific has been around for more than 80 years making furnaces and ovens. We offer everything from small bench top laboratory fan convection ovens, all the way up to large industrial scale vacuum chamber furnaces.
Tell us about your new tube furnaces.
We went back to the drawing board and completely redesigned our entire tube furnace line. The tube furnaces have been redesigned from the ground up. The design and engineering teams have really done something special with these and they have completely blown me away. All the tube furnaces now are manufactured with a modular design. We can now provide one kit that can operate horizontally or vertically. All of the furnaces can be removed from the control cabinet and are on a two-meter conduit, so there’s flexibility with regards to mounting. In our previous design, systems had to be specifically configured for the way you wanted it mounted. That is no longer an issue.
All of the systems now have quick disconnect connectors to disconnect the furnace from the control box. The furnace can be disconnected easily without opening the control cabinet. This haS some excellent advantages for service.
Increasing the ease of service was also a strong focus of the redesign. There is a singular metal tray inside of the unit and all of the electrical components are actually attached to that tray. By removing several screws, the entirety of the electrical components can be removed from the back of the control box, giving full access. We have also changed the way the thermocouples are oriented inside the system to allow those to be more easily replaceable.
We are also expecting a significant reduction in lead time for these systems as a result of the redesign.
The new Carbolite Gero tube furnaces are offered in a comprehensive range of temperatures and sizes. They range from a 32mm outer diameter, all the way up to 200mm outer diameter and are available in temperatures up to 1,600°C.
The standard tube furnaces now come standard with Ethernet and a digital programmable controller. We are offering the new CC-T1 on these units. The CC-T1 is a small touch screen controller that has integrated data logging, and a visual map of the temperature profile. We have taken advantage of modern-day electronics to improve functionality and ease of use.
What kind of industry response have you gotten so far?
We’re now quoting the redesign tube furnaces. They’re available for purchase worldwide. The industry response so far has been excellent. We have had positive feedback on the look and on the increased functionality.
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