BSN Thermprozesstechnik and Schuler have developed a compact rotary furnace for the hot forming of side walls and base assemblies.
Conventional roller hearth furnaces can reach a length of up to 45 meters so that large components such as side walls or floor assemblies can be produced economically using hot forming. BSN Thermprozesstechnik and Schuler have now developed a compact rotary furnace that saves both space and energy, is also easy to maintain and, last but not least, ensures a repeatable temperature of the heated parts. This is important because any deviation from the specified temperature can lead to inaccuracies and therefore to problems during assembly.
With a length of 14 meters including loading unit and centering, a width of six meters including heating and drives and a height of seven meters, the compact rotary oven from Schuler and BSN requires only around a quarter of the space of a conventional roller hearth oven. The minimum cycle time per part is twelve seconds. The oven, which runs on both electricity and gas, can save around 1,200 MWh of energy per year. Back in 2006, Schuler designed the first line for mold hardening complete side panels for a North American car manufacturer. Around twelve million so-called “double door rings” are currently produced annually using this process in the USA, Europe and China, and this figure is set to rise to 118 million by the end of this decade.
The blanks for the side panel of an SUV measure 3,000 by 1,600 mm. A 1,800-ton hydraulic press from Schuler with a table size of 3.60 by 2.50 meters is ideal for forming. The “Pressure Controlled Hardening” (PCH) technology ensures shorter cooling times and better forming tolerances.
Web:
www.schulergroup.com
