INDUSTRY: SUPERABRASIVE GRINDING
Grieve has shipped a 1250°F inert atmosphere oven to a manufacturer of grinding wheels and tools. We built the oven for use with an argon atmosphere, as oxidation (and resulting discoloration) is a concern for our customer.
To preserve the integrity of the internal atmosphere, the oven seams are continuously welded to be gas-tight. All wall penetrations include compression fittings on the outside. Positive latching door hardware and adjustable door hinges guarantee a tight seal around the door. The oven also includes an atmosphere inlet pressure regulator, a flow meter, and a pressure gauge.
Inert atmosphere ovens typically cool down slowly, so we make each Grieve inert atmosphere oven with a cooling jacket in the walls (shown in the diagram). A controlled cool-down rate is critical to our customer’s process. Therefore, we added a cooling blower to this argon oven to pull air through the jacket and modulating dampers to regulate the amount of air being drawn through.
Grieve high temperature inert atmosphere ovens are further described at this link.