Industrial ovens are used for all kind of purposes and across many industries. Their functions range from curing, baking, drying, to assembling components. Industrial ovens are used for all kind of heat treatments. It is the preferred means of using heat for different purposes because of the control it offers. Electric oven manufacturers today offer a range of user-friendly controls with a modern interface.
Given the many functions of an industrial oven, it is not surprising that there are also different types of ovens. These are:
Curing ovens
This type of oven uses thermal heat to bring a chemical reaction in the product. It can improve the strength and durability of many materials. The curing oven raises the temperature to a specific level or beyond. This affects the chemical structure of the product. The curing oven is used for curing, improving a paint job, or for adhesion jobs. It is also used to make raw materials like rubbers, thermoses polymers, and adhesives. It can be used to bring a desired reaction between two products. For instance, it is used for finishing paint job on objects like metals. When cured in an oven, we get a far superior finish.
Batch Ovens
This type of oven is used for a range of applications, including, drying, ageing, baking, annealing, powder coating, tempering, preheating and more. Batch ovens can be extremely big in size with the products rolled inside in trolleys and arranged as needed. Batch ovens process goods in a batches — one product at a time or in groups. They are used in many places, from the food industry to laboratories.
Drying Ovens
As the name suggests, drying ovens are used to remove moisture and other solvents from a product. Electric oven manufacturers usually make in a conveyer belt system, using thermal heat in convection process to remove the moisture. Drying ovens are considered among the most efficient means of dehydrating an object. These are very common in the food industry where drying ovens are used to dry all kind of foods.
Reflow Ovens
It is a very important oven in the electrical and electronics industry. It is used mainly to reflow soldering electrical parts on a PCB. Small reflow ovens are often kept in labs for R&D or working on electronics. Manufacturing units will typically have larger versions — usually an inline or a conveyer belt oven. Reflow ovens have different zones of heat through which the circuit board passes. The air inside the oven can be as per requirement.
Baking Ovens
Distinct from the domestic oven, an industrial oven is significantly larger in size. It is used for baking mass products and hence, must have enough space to accommodate this. An industrial oven also has better heat management and distribution, as it is critical to ensure even baking. The baked goods are usually arranged in racks at carefully calculated distances to ensure even heating.
Indexing Conveyor Ovens:
These ovens have continuously running conveyor belt. Apart from the advantage of a constant operation, it also allows for long dwell time and dense loading in a single batch. The products are grouped or ‘indexed’ together in baskets or trays. They are common in solution heat treating, aluminium processing and ageing. The biggest advantages of indexing conveyer ovens are their automation and large processing capacity.
Conveyor or Continuous Ovens
The name comes from the conveyer belt or continuous operation fo the oven. Common features used by electric oven manufacturers for conveyor or continuous ovens are conveyor belt, overhead monorail, a pusher system, and heavy duty chains. Like the indexing conveyer oven (which is a type of conveyer oven, this type of oven also has a continuous system.
Spiral or Rotary Ovens
A spiral or rotary oven is almost the same as a conveyor oven. Only here the conveyor belt moves around a rotating drum. The advantage os a rotary oven is that it save a lot of floor space. It is best for products where we need controlled temperatures with an efficient cooking.
Clean Room Ovens
The clean room oven gets its name from its ‘clean’ requirements. There are applications where a sanitised and hygienic environment is of paramount importance. This is common in industries like Pharma and F&B. The ovens have to meet extremely strict specifications about filters, temperature and moisture control. Most such ovens will have stainless steel interiors and exteriors for easy cleaning.
Vertical Ovens
Vertical ovens get their name from their height. These are built to occupy the minimum possible amount of manufacturing floor space. To make up for this, the oven uses its height. The unique shape means that electric oven manufacturers have to be careful of creating even heating conditions.