Evaluation of Continuous Convection and Radiation Ovens in Automobile Cure Industry

Paint cure oven is one of the most important parts of automobile production line. The cure speed and the magnitude of energy consumption are significant in auto manufacturing industry. The radiation oven has been of the interest by cure industry due to the reduction in energy consumption and appropriate cure. The design process of these ovens is really complex specially for bodies with complex geometry and bodies which especially delicate to specific temperature condition. According to the progress of computation equipment abilities and design algorithms, the utilization of these ovens has gained considerable attention from auto manufacturing industry in recent years. This study considers the benefits and defects of the radiation oven and shows that replacement of the convection ovens with radiation ovens in Iran Auto manufacturing industry would lead to 32% energy saving. The design process of convection continuous ovens is easier than radiation ovens but the associated numerical modeling is complicated and computationally intensive. In this study, the moving boundary method and its application to convection continuous ovens are discussed. The numerical results based on the moving boundary method are compared with the experimental results.