Mecahnical Convection Ovens

Now here's a series of ovens you can find a variety of uses for.

Mechanical Convection Ovens. sometimes known as Forced Air Ovens, sometimes simply referred to as a Lab Oven, typically can be found in sizes ranging from 1.4 cubic foot to 4.9 cubic foot, but certainly can be much bigger.....all the way to 18 cubic feet. Most are designed to be bench-top models, however the larger ones, by their shear size, necessitate a bench of their own or sit on a floor stand.

Mechanical Ovens have faster heat up times than a laboratory Convection ovens, closer temperature uniformity and a more efficient transfer of heat from the heating element.

It's pretty simple. A fan motor blows cold air across a heated element and into the chamber, either horizontally or vertically through the chamber, or a combination of both....horizontally and vertically.

It's more precise and more efficient than a Gravity Convection Oven because you are actually moving air within the chamber as opposed to the "natural" gravity oven which is also known as a passive system.

You'll pay more, but have better control over your temperature gradients, your heat up times, and with the advent of digital controllers, stability has been greatly increased, usually to +/-3% for uniformity and +/-0.5% for accuracy.

Most manufacturers stay in the 204°C to 300°C range. However Carbolite has a fine series of lab ovens, read mechanical convection here, that heat to the 400°C, 500°C and 600°C range. Leave it to the British to accomplish that.

I still would not recommend putting last nights leftover pizza in these ovens......you know what you've been processing in there,............would you want to digest any of those chemicals? I think not.

Next week we'll tackle the hot topic of laboratory furnaces..........from 1000°C to 1800°C. Stay tuned !!

Labels: Mecahnical Convection

posted by Burt @ 3:42 PM