LEWCO Conveyor Oven Substantially Increases
Thruput for Headset Manufacturer
LEWCO, Inc. was approached recently by an
international sound-system manufacturer needing a better way to cure the
foam ear cushions used in their military headset product line. LEWCO
engineers, with superior knowledge of airflow, oven and conveyor
processes, delivered a conveyor oven that met the customer’s strictest
requirements. Product capacity was substantially increased by
aiding the manufacturer to switch from a batch process to a continuous
process with LEWCO's proven technology.
The
customer’s application required curing the foam ear cushions in a
continuous process oven at 155 oC,
and then rapidly cooling them for packaging. Due to the solvents
evaporated during the curing, this was an NFPA Class A oven design.
The
LEWCO designed custom conveyor oven featured a top mounted electric
heater box and vertical down airflow. A special Teflon coated Kevlar
mesh conveyor belt was specified to prevent the ear cushions from
sticking to the conveyor belt, while still allowing airflow to the lower
return. This belt was extremely flat to prevent indentation marks on the
parts. As the parts exit the oven, they go directly into a small cooling
tunnel to lower the temperature from 155
oC to under 38
oC
in approximately 1 minute.
The
critical design specification for the conveyor oven was a temperature
uniformity of +/- 2 oC
for about 90% of the oven workspace. With the open ends of a conveyor
oven and a large oven workspace, this posed a great engineering
challenge; however, with LEWCO’s knowledge of airflow and oven
processes, we met the strict customer specifications.
The
conveyor oven system further features a custom control package that
includes a touchscreen OIT, PLC control and data logger. Custom software
allows the operator to create and save different part profiles. Each
profile can be programmed for process temperature, conveyor belt index
rate, belt index distance, and/or manual or automatic operation. All of
the data is continuously monitored and recorded on the integral hard
drive of the OIT. The system can also be connected to Ethernet.
For
further information on this design solution, or if you need our help on
another application, contact our sales headquarters at (419) 625-4014,
or email LEWCO at sales@lewcoinc.com.
Customers can also request a quote for LEWCO’s process heating products
by answering a few simple questions about the application via our
on-line Oven
Configurator. LEWCO designs and manufactures a diverse product line
including conveyor ovens, batch ovens, bench ovens, drum heating
equipment, and furnaces and furnace parts-- as well as a complete line
of conveyor equipment-- at our 165,000 manufacturing facility in
Sandusky, Ohio.
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