APPLICATION GALLERY: YOUR CHALLENGES, OUR SOLUTIONS.

Introduction

Unifrax is a global leader in high-performance specialty fibers and inorganic materials used in high-temperature industrial, automotive, and fire protection applications. Unifrax acquired Rex Materials in 2020, adding both new products and 50 years of experience specializing in solving your high-temperature needs. Unifrax now offers custom engineered material systems and innovative refractory products, increased tooling capability, new applications and design engineering expertise and state of the art manufacturing.  Today, with over 100 different material formulations and 1,000 different applications, we are uniquely positioned to solve your high-temperature requirements.  

Challenge 

Customers were looking for a way to accelerate conveyorized commercial oven production and improve energy efficiency by heating up  and processing product more quickly.

The Solution 

We have been designing and manufacturing custom engineered high-temperature electrically heated ceramic heaters and components since 1973. We currently supply several hundred different heater designs to more than forty equipment manufacturers in the industrial, laboratory, hobby, and specialty heat processing markets. Our electrically heated components such as panels, modules, and cylinders come in a variety of standard & custom thicknesses and sizes. They can achieve chamber temperatures up to 2200°F (1200°C) and watt loadings to 3 kW per sq. ft. of heated surface area depending on element design and material selected. Benefits include:

1. Reduced Energy Consumption: Low thermal mass and low specific heat results in very low heat retention. This lowers the amount of energy absorbed and retained by the insulation providing more energy to heat the work. Results in lower power requirements and longer element life.
2. Reduced Cycle Times: Low thermal mass and excellent resistance to thermal shock results in shorter heat up and cool down periods.
3. Economical Designs: Low density (14 lbs./cu. ft.) and excellent insulating properties enables the wall thickness and weight to be reduced resulting in a lower installed cost.
   

We designed a heating panel made up of a heating element that is integrally vacuum cast into a ceramic fiber shape. The heating element is wound using an automated wire winding machine, technology which is available at our Kansas plant. The element is then vacuum cast into the part, eliminating the need for any support hardware that could serve as a unwanted heat path to the exterior of the oven.  The geometry of the wire is uniquely designed so that more even heating is generated at the surface of the panel. 

The Unifrax material designation used is Pyrolite Ceramic Fiber Heating Panel. 

Results

The heating panels are designed individually and sold and installed by OEM’s into commercial conveyor style pizza ovens.  The ovens are manufactured in single and dual tunnel types, utilizing typically four heating panels per oven. The element pads are sandwiched between stainless metal panels with the temperature probe inserted.  The heating element is then installed into the oven on the production line. The panels allow the conveyorized oven to heat up quicker, and more efficiently saving energy and time in the overall production process.

Typical end use customers include international restaurant franchises utilizing conveyorized commercial ovens.