Conveyor Ovens Sinter Various Parts of Lab Equipment

LEWCO, Inc. recently completed two 800°F. electrically heated conveyor ovens, which will be used to cure various component parts of laboratory equipment. The parts come in many different shapes and sizes, so it was critical to ensure they remained stationary as they passed through the oven. To solve this, LEWCO engineers used a balanced weave belt design. This type of belt will keep the parts stationary, while also permitting adequate airflow across the parts.

Each oven is equipped with two independently controlled conveyors traveling through a single workspace. All of the customers’ parts cure at the same temperature; however some require longer dwell times. The independently controlled conveyors allow for this by being able to set each conveyor speed according to a given parts required dwell time.

It was important that the parts cool down enough for safe handling prior to packaging, thus a forced air cooling zone was included on each oven. As parts near the end of the oven, they pass through a cooling tunnel which exhausts the warm air out. With these two conveyor ovens LEWCO was able keep the customers’ steady production rate, while also providing a cost effective alternative to purchasing four individual ovens.

LEWCO’s Senior Application Engineer, Lou Schaefer, said “These types of projects are where LEWCO shines above our competitors.  We worked with this customer to help them develop the most cost-effective solution for their application.”