Improving Production... LEWCO Engineers Complete Custom Conveyor Oven Cell


SANDUSKY, OH – LEWCO, Inc. recently delivered (4) custom conveyor ovens to a global manufacturer of electric transformers. Two of the ovens will be used for drying sand molds and the other two ovens will be used to cure parts after casting.  The project also included an extensive conveyor system, which will be used to move the parts around the manufacturing cell. LEWCO's industrial oven and conveyor engineers worked together to develop the most efficient and cost-effective solution possible.



The drying ovens (models NS-CVR03ED) employ (3) stacked levels of gravity roller conveyors installed on a slope to permit the sand molds to naturally flow towards the unload end.  Pneumatic powered guillotine doors on each end of the oven greatly improve thermal efficiency and minimize heat loss.



The curing ovens (models NS-CVC03EVD) were designed with (3) independently controlled lanes of dual strand chain conveyor. The control system will automatically select which lane is ready to receive parts, then it will index those parts through the ovens to yield consistent dwell times at a constant temperature. At the entrance and exits outside the ovens, a custom designed material handling system consists of chain driven roller conveyors,  pneumatic pop-ups, pop-up chain transfers, and a motorized  swing gate conveyor.



This was a very complex system and LEWCO's engineers worked very closely with the end user to ensure their needs were met. Remote monitoring and control of the equipment was a must for this application. A lot of provisions were made for tracking of the parts throughout the process, and both ovens employed temperature controllers which could communicate via Ethernet with an Allen Bradley PLC. These controllers also allow the process to be recorded and downloaded from any computer on the customer's network. 



According to Senior Applications Engineer, Lou Schaefer; "This project is another great example of LEWCO's integrated material handling and process heating expertise. The customer realized their production bottleneck and came to our [LEWCO engineers to solve it. The system was exactly what they needed for this very unique application. No other company could have done it as effectively as us."


All Topics