800°F LEWCO Oven used for Austempering Retaining Rings

SANDUSKY, OH – When a leading company in the wind power industry needed an industrial oven to heat retaining rings for repairing turbines, they turned to the engineers at LEWCO.  The result, a standard model EWR08ED walk-in oven, features dual airflow and is electrically heated with a maximum operating temperature of 800°F.

In the customer’s process, two large retaining rings are loaded onto the cart and rolled into the oven for heat treatment at temperatures between 650°F. and 800°F.  The rings undergo heat treatment to achieve the bainitic microstructure known as Austempering.  Austempering is an isothermal heat treatment method that, when applied to ferrous metals, eliminates brittleness and produces a stronger structure that is less susceptible to cracking.  It was critical that the retaining rings are heated evenly to achieve the same state.  To ensure this, LEWCO conducted an AMS2750-E temperature uniformity survey.  The results exceeded expectations, achieving temperature uniformity of +/-3°F. throughout the workspace at max. operating temperature.

LEWCO standard oven controls were upgraded to include a Eurotherm Nanodac.  The Nanodac serves as a ramp/soak temperature controller, as well as a data acquisition unit.  A three port thermocouple jack panel was included and wired to the Nanodac.  This enables the customer to measure and record three part thermocouples, thus allowing them to monitor different points throughout the workspace to ensure the oven is staying within the desired temperature uniformity.  On the control panel LEWCO mounted a USB port for extracting and reviewing the data from the Eurotherm Nanodac.    

Questions? Speak with a LEWCO Applications Engineer today to learn how LEWCO can help you! Call us at (419) 502-2780 or email us at ovensales@lewcoinc.com.