Poole-based AeroThermal (www.aerothermalgroup.com) has designed and manufactured a new 8 x 1.75m oven — the first of its type in the world — for a global aerospace supplier.

What makes this oven unique is a door that runs along the full 8m length of one side (plus the oven’s ability to maintain an exceptionally high level of temperature uniformity).

The oven comprises a steel structural frame and steel panelling. It is highly insulated, and it contains a multi-zone heating system, with four banks of heater cassettes and four fans, plus two control systems — one for the air temperature and one for the component temperature.

Two components can be loaded at the same time by a trolley that cantilevers across the 1.5m gap (needed to enable the door to close) between the external tracks and the internal fixturing.

Ian Toll of AeroThermal said: “This was a challenge; we had to design the oven — with a unique side-loading mechanism — starting from a blank sheet of paper. On top of this, it needed to operate within a very tight temperature tolerance.”