HERAEUS INSTALLS FIRST GAS CATALYTIC INFRA-RED OVEN

By Heraeus
schedule20th Nov 18

Heraeus Nobleight has installed a gas catalytic infra-red oven at its Neston, Wirral, Applications Centre. This complements the range of electric infra-red systems at Neston, so that customers, and potential customers, will now, for the łrst time, haRe the opportunity of trialling their products using various infra-red technologies, to achieve the optimum process to meet their heating, curing or łnishing requirements.

The new oven is particularly suitable for powder coating and the Neston installation also includes a powder-coating station and an overhead conveyor to simulate real process situations. Other applications include food drying, thermo forming, textiles drying, leather curing and curing coatings on heat-sensitive substrates, such as MDF. The gelling of powder coatings has traditionally been carried out by convection ovens, which are energy inefłcient and require a large amount of floor space. They can also be expensive to run and cannot be quickly shut down when there are breaks in production. In addition they produce noxious gases.

Gas Catalytic heating suffers from none of these drawbacks and offers a very short return on investment. They are also highly controllable and can be used for smaller batch sizes.

Gas catalytic ovens can operate on natural gas or propane. They are flameless, as they rely on initially heating a platinum catalyst ceramic composite heater panel. Once the catalytic reaction is established, approximately five minutes after the gas is turned on, the electrical pre-heat is switched off and the reaction is maintained, without flame, until the gas is shut off, without any deterioration of the platinum catalyst. The surface temperature of the heater depends upon the gas flow and this is controlled by a precise gas pulse system (GPS).

Ian Bartley, business manager at Heraeus in Neston, explained: “We can now offer a uniquely comprehensive service to our customers and potential customers. We can carry out in-house trials on their products and components using electric infra-red and gas catalytic infra-red to determine which technology, and which waRe>and of infra-red, >est suits their requirements. We can also demonstrate the advantages of these technologies in conditions as close as possible to those met on the production Ńoor.”

Heraeus specialises in the production and application of high quality energy sources. Gas catalytic infra-red entered the Heraeus portfolio when Vulcan Catalytic Systems Ltd was acquired last year.