There are two types of conveyor ovens, the manual and automatic types. Automatic continuous ovens yields more output with product feed rates that can be adjusted depending on your requirements. For manual conveyor ovens, you can opt for low volume throughputs.
The advantages
Conveyor Ovens have several advantages which is why they are preferred by investors especially those whose manufacturing requirements are met by this type of oven. Some of the notable ad vantages of conveyor ovens include the following:
- Baskets, racks, trucks and other fixtures are not required in order to process the parts. Unlike batch ovens, you do not need any of these fixtures to be able to process your materials.
- Conveyor ovens are more economical because majority of its operation is automated. Manual operations are more labor intensive thereby increasing your operational costs. Conveyor ovens do not require loading materials to the fixture and loading these fixtures to the oven unlike batch ovens. This means manual labor is reduced and you also save time in the process. After the production is done, there is no need for you to require another labor to unload the fixtures from the oven including the unloading of finished products from the fixture.
- Conveyor Ovens are not labor intensive. This means that you would not employ more workers to complete your production process. Manual labor also entails more time and this could impact your production rate in the long run.
- Energy consumptions is minimized since there are no more fixture to be heated in every loading cycle. Loading cycles are also decreased which further reduces energy consumption. Because there is a decrease in cycle time, production volume is increased much to the advantage of your business.
Configurations
Conveyor Ovens have two basic configuration or modes of operation, the continuous conveyor oven and indexing conveyor ovens. For the continuous conveyor ovens, the system moves continuously. The materials are loaded into the conveyor belt which moves through the heated chamber at controlled speed and heat to meet the production requirements. For the indexing mode of operation, the materials are loaded to the oven chamber in a series of broken movements. The materials are placed on the conveyor for them to be advanced to the oven chamber incrementally at specified distance.
Conveyor ovens are more complex compared to its manual counterpart, the batch oven. It also requires bigger capital investment and more equipment maintenance. However, conveyor ovens have more advantages in the long run that will increase your productivity and lessen your operational costs. Weigh the different advantages and disadvantages to ensure that you will get the right oven suitable to your industrial application.