Flotation Oven / Nozzles Customer Value Case Study
Flotation ovens are elongated, convective heating with jets of hot gas or air directed against the top and bottom surfaces. Spaced longitudinally within the oven is a plurality of jet nozzles. These nozzles are blowing gas or air between 60 and 75 PSI, to support the product as it is being cured.
Challenges
One company, curing an adhesive web, found the web would periodically break. When the web broke, the adhesive side of the web landed on the air nozzles. This caused a huge problem with cleanup and required significant man hours of down time, and of more importance, loss of product.
A coating was applied that offered absolute release. However, the temperature of the oven (which can be as high as 275 degrees) and more importantly the solvents used in the making of the adhesives and to clean the nozzles, meant the coating only lasted 3 to 5 months.
High release, with durability, was needed.
Solutions
Another Plasma Coatings product was tested on 2 of the nozzles, placed in the middle of zone 2, and lasted to date, 14 months, with no change in the coating.
Customer Value
The company has improved their production down time, for clean up, from 8 to 12 hours a week to 1.5 to 2 hours, meaning significant improvement to production and the bottom line!
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