A national research laboratory will use a vacuum-assisted composite curing oven to cure various composite parts. The 500°F (260°C) oven was commissioned by Lewco Inc.

The electric walk in-oven has a rear-mounted heater box with a heat capacity of 99 kW. It is equipped with a high efficiency circulation fan delivering dual airflow and providing uniform heat throughout the workspace. A temperature uniformity survey was conducted to ensure that laboratory’s requirements for the thermal processing were met.

Lewco also supplied its PLC/PC-based composite curing control system. Operators have full control of all oven and control functions from the touchscreen HMI. They can create and store multiple ramp/soak recipes, enter specific batch data, select thermocouples and vacuum ports for each recipe, view trend data, and print reports.