July 2011 - Cire Technologies, Inc. Supplies New Process Line Including High Temperature Floatation Oven for Oxidizing Process
Cire Technologies is proud to report on a recent project:
This project, installed in Massachusetts, encompassed the design, fabrication, installation and start-up of a new process line for the client's web oxidizing process. Cire Technologies provided a turnkey installation including the web handling equipment, a three-pass, six temperature zone oven, and an interactive computer control system. The demanding process line required gentle handling of a brittle product at uncommonly high flotation oven operating temperatures of up to 752°F (400°C).
In custom designing the oven, Cire Technologies was able to reduce power requirements by 60% by implementing a high-temperature heat exchanger. The oven was devised with three, ten-meter passes of floatation ovens stacked vertically to fit in a small footprint. Each pass has two temperature and velocity zones and is heated with electric coils. The high-temperature heat exchanger was customized to capture the waste heat from the oven exhaust to pre-heat the make-up air supplied to each zone. Careful design and consideration of the thermal expansion of the oven components were particularly important at these elevated temperatures to maintain the integrity of the floater system and its support of the web.
The computerized web handling equipment included an unwind, high-temperature (on the fly) splice heating station, accumulator, web guides and web rewind. The computer interface control system allows for precise control of the entire line and recipe development.
Cire Technologies completed the project on time and on budget, while exceeding stringent perform-ance specifications. The project's flexible design, with variable speed drives on all fan motors and precise temperature control of each of the six thermal zones, results in a process line that will easily adjust to process changes and new products.
