To say Despatch Industries has been a mainstay of the process heating industry would be a massive understatement. After all, the Lakeville, Minn.-based manufacturer has been in the business for over 110 years.
Albert E. Grapp started Despatch Industries in 1902 with plans to service and repair electrical items that were just beginning to be invented in the early 1900s. It was not long before the innovative entrepreneur was building electric heaters for frigid Minneapolis streetcars and developing flour-drying ovens for milling companies like Pillsbury.
Despatch evolved its business over time to include high temperature furnaces, continuous conveyor ovens, sterilization ovens, semiconductor burn-in equipment, test chambers, carbon-fiber oxidation ovens and infrared solar-cell manufacturing equipment. It has been quite an evolution over 11-plus decades. A one-man operation has transformed into a business employing 130, and Despatch now serves industries including electronics, healthcare, transportation and solar.
In 2013, Despatch manufactures a range of batch ovens that are suitable for applications where load size or production volumes vary substantially and for situations that require a high degree of flexibility in terms of process variables. The company’s batch oven line includes forced convection ovens, pass-through ovens, inert atmosphere ovens, HEPA-filtered ISO Class 5 clean-room ovens and Class A ovens. Applications include die bond curing for wafer-level packaging of semiconductors, polyimide curing, magnetic annealing, drying, sterilizing, aging, reliability testing, wafer-level burn-in and other process-critical procedures.
The company also manufactures conveyor ovens that are suitable for high volume, repeatable applications. Despatch continuous ovens offer conveyor widths from 18 to 36 inches (46 to 91 cm) with electric or gas heat. Conveyor ovens help ensure consistent thermal-processing times for each part in high volume applications such as manufacturing electronic components or automotive parts. Conveyor ovens also may allow several discrete processes to be combined, reducing material handling and increasing throughput.
Despatch’s thermal-processing technology expertise spans many applications, including:
- Temperature uniformity and control for consistent product quality.
- Airflow technology – type of airflow being utilized and the volume of air being moved, based on the specific load configuration.
- Infrared applications – the ability to control atmosphere to reduce oxidation and provide closed-loop temperature controls for tight uniformity.
- Temperature uniformity and control for consistent product quality.
- Airflow technology – type of airflow being utilized and the volume of air being moved, based on the specific load configuration.
- Infrared applications – the ability to control atmosphere to reduce oxidation and provide closed-loop temperature controls for tight uniformity.
- Continuous processing methodologies.
- Inert environment creation, measure and controls.
- Particulate measurement and controls.