#Industry (Production, process)
Conveyor Oven for Marine Engine Heat Exchangers
LEWCO, Inc. recently completed construction of a custom industrial conveyor oven for a manufacturer of marine engine heat exchangers. The oven will be used to cure liquid seals on the end of the tube bundles.
The curing cycle is a 2-step process requiring (2) separate dwell times in the oven, but both at the same temperature. Instead of a traditional (2) oven system, LEWCO engineers developed an oven with (2) independent conveyors passing through the same workspace. Operators can adjust the speed of each conveyor separately to yield the proper dwell times in the oven. The oven also features two independently controlled heat zones, one for preheat and the other for soak. The addition of the preheat zone allowed the overall oven length to be shorter since it can bring the part up to temperature faster. This approach saved the customer considerable money relative to a traditional two oven system.
According to Senior Applications Engineer, Lou Schaefer; "We listened to the customer, asked a lot of questions, and then provided a cost-effective solution to meet their requirements."