Thermal technology provider Despatch Industries, Minneapolis, received an order for a custom production furnace from Bloom Energy, Sunnyvale, Calif., a provider of solid-oxide fuel cell technology. The company plans to use the custom, high-temperature furnace for fuel cell processing.

The production furnace has vertical-down airflow to achieve tight temperature uniformity within the chamber. It is capable of reaching temperatures up to 1,832°F (1,000°C) through a combination of convective and radiant heating technology that utilizes custom heating elements. One feature unique to the furnace setup is its shell, which moves on a rail system around a fixed, stationary deck to ease loading and unloading of product batches. The furnace will operate on Despatch’s control system, which will be configured to provide operational, monitoring and protection capabilities, and will be integrated with Bloom Energy’s master controller.