CUSTOMER & DIRECTIVE

This customer is a global provider of clean fuel solutions for commercial vehicles and gas transportation solutions. Its product offerings include natural gas storage and delivery systems, Type 4 composite natural gas cylinders, as well as propane and natural gas fuel systems. These products transport clean gaseous fuels and enable vehicles to reduce emissions while saving operating costs. Davron was tasked with building a set of batch ovens to cure long, cylindrical, composite tanks, stacked five high in a vertical arrangement.  The customer had an existing system with design elements that they liked and others that were not so good. Davron built upon their existing experience, creating improvements to the less desirable and adding features that would increase the efficiency, performance, and overall ease of use of the composite curing process.

DESCRIPTION

In order to create excellent product, the carts supporting the extruded HDPE tubes and molded dome fuel cells need to be custom engineered and manufactured. The long, tall, and narrow carts provide automated load/unload interfacing with the customers unique tanks transfer system, as well as the ability to pressurize and rotate all five tanks while in the oven at cure temperature to maintain centricity while curing. Further automation allows for single touch adjustment to accommodate up to approximately 120” difference in tank lengths. The oven features staggered horizontal crossflow air circulation. When paired with the constant tank rotation this provides an efficient means of evenly heating the entire length of the composite tanks. Extra care was taken to minimize the total oven system footprint to provide as much efficiency of space to the customer as possible.

ALTERNATIVE CAPABILITIES

Davron Technologies, Inc. designs and manufactures ovens of this type to meet many unique process requirements, including but not limited to, the following:

• Airflow: Designs can be completed to provide airflow from any direction within the heated chamber as required by the product. This particular process supplies horizontal crossflow from both side, from front to back, but it could be vertical up/down, or horizontal from either side.
• Industries Served: Aerospace, composite fabrication, general manufacturing, powder coating
• Materials Processed: Carbon fiber, fiberglass, Kevlar, steel, aluminum, etc.
• Other Processes: Annealing, drying, baking, thermoforming, pre-heating, stress-relieving
• Heating Systems: Modulating Gas Fired Direct or Indirect, Electric, or Thermal Oil.