Annual maintenance and inspection schedule for powder coating oven

Annual maintenance and inspection schedule

Many plants shut down annually to do system checks that are too time-consuming to do during the production year. Review your manufacturer’s recommendations for manufacturer’s recommendations for annual inspection , adjustment, and replacement of components in the following oven areas: Ignition,burner,combustion air supply,flame failure system,combustion controls,pipes and wires,thermocouples, automatic fire suppression, operating sequences.

If a component is suspect,replace it right away instead of waiting until it fails during production. Annual maintenance should not be taken lightly or ignored if you want to be trouble-free throughout the production year.

Oven profiling

Oven profiles should be performed periodically. Many end users include this test in their statistical process control procedure. Often called the road map to curing success . The oven profile curve shows you important information about your oven’s performance.

Oven profiles are done with a chart reorder. This device measures oven temperature in relation to time and displays a graph on a chart. You can borrow a chart recorder from your powder coating supplier . For accurate oven profile, use a multichannel type with at least three thermocouples.

Hang the device from a part hanger, and attache two of the thermocouples to the part. Attach them to the part’s highest and lowest points. You can also attach them to the part’s thinnest and thickest areas to determine if a full cure is taking place in the oven. The third thermocouple measures oven air temperature only and should not be attached to the part.

After the oven is up to operating temperature,start the conveyor and run it at your most common line speed. Load the part hanger with the chart recorder onto the powder coatings line in the middle of full load of parts. This will assure that the result reflect actual operating conditions. After the chart recorder completes its run through the oven, remove the chart from the device to examine it. To produce a chart in some units, a memory module must be connected to a computer , a printing device or both.