A conveyor oven is kind of an industrial oven that is used in industrial processes that require heat treatment of materials.
The conveyor ovens typically form part of an automated system that is recommended by conveyor oven exporters and manufacturers of industries, where there is a need for an oven that processes high volumes of materials at one time.
Applications of Conveyor Ovens in Industries
In industrial settings, a conveyor oven is used in the following processes:
Drying
The process of drying is where a material is subjected to a dehydration treatment, removing any and every moisture that may be present on it. A conveyor oven is often used in this process before a product is packaged and shipped off for sale to the general public.
This process and oven are found to be used in the food packaging industry, non-edible product processing industry, and other similar industries.
Baking
Conveyor ovens are frequently used in the baking industry where food is baked in conveyor ovens that can be adjusted to heat up to a certain temperature and move at a constant speed.
This makes baking the food products easier and automated. For example, in the pizza making business, conveyor ovens are very commonly used.
Curing
The process of curing is the one where materials like coatings and adhesives are thermo-linked. In this process, heat is used to form cross-linking polymer chains to strengthen and harden the material. This process is often carried out in a conveyor oven.
Heat treating
Heat treatment is a set of processes that are conducted on metal and metal alloys like steel in order to bring out various properties like ductility, malleability, increase or decrease hardness, and so on.
Tempering and aging are two such processes where a conveyor oven is typically used.
Preheating
Preheating is very commonly used in industries where heat treatment is used to process metals and alloys. The products are simply placed in the preheating ovens prior to the next step where it is subjected to heat treatment. Conveyor ovens are one amongst many such ovens that are used for this process.
Bonding
Thermally induced bonding is a very common process used in the thermoplastic industry to produce certain desired properties in the materials processed.
For this process as well, a conveyor oven is typically found to be used. Some conveyor oven exporters even recommend the usage of a double conveyor oven for this process as it produces different densities and thicknesses to the processed material.
Annealing
The process of annealing is used to decrease the strength of a metal, alloy, or other materials. This is done to make it more ductile. Annealing conveyor ovens are used by both the thermoplastic industries as well as the metallurgic industries for this process.
Stress relieving
Stress relieving is a heat treatment process that is used on metals after they have been already machined. Here, the metal is heated just below the melting point after it is machined.
This process can be carried out in batch ovens as well but depending on the output required, some conveyor oven exporters and manufacturers recommend the usage of a continuous style heat treatment that a conveyor oven would use.
The use of a conveyor oven has various benefits like the ability to process high volumes of materials, the elimination of errors due to the automation of the process, and also because conveyor ovens can be fitted with a VFD or variable frequency drive that makes it possible to control the speed of the conveyor belt, making it an efficient option for industries.