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Speaking of Precision Blog
Sensemaking for the precision machining industry
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Miles FreeWelcome to our blog, Speaking of Precision. As Director of Technology and Industry Research for PMPA I bring 36 years of hands on experience in areas of manufacturing, quality and steelmaking. I help answer-"HOW?","WITH WHAT?" and "REALLY?"
November 16, 2009 at 3:38 pm |
Dear Miles,
I hope you are doing well, I read your articles they are very impressive. maybe you can help me on this, I have a tunnel oven in my bakery the size 20′L X 7′W While we were in production making bread we had a power outage, the whole block, all my machines stopped, no electric power for a good 3-3/12 hours, this oven is a direct heat ovens, roof brick arched, the bread is bakes at a high temperature 1100-1300% baking time 15-35 seconds, after electric came back the slates size 48″X 4″ 1/4 tick, now they are not turning smooth there is scratchings very dip on the baking plates, and some are warped, I made a claim to my insurance, I have two experts evaluations that was a sudden heat exposure, and the oven is four years old they said that since every day the steel was exposed to heat, the steel grains are changed since not properly cooled off result to warped, but my insurance is denying my claim, saying that is not caused from heat exposure,
after I turn the oven off we leave the ovens blower fan for about two hours to cool the oven evenly, but that day I was not able to do so,
is there any advise you could give me,
Best regards,
George Nazarian
November 17, 2009 at 11:00 am |
Sorry to learn of your problem. I am not surprised to learn that the Insurance company is in denial. That seems to be a requirement for hiring in that industry.
From your description of the events, it seems to me that the plates that warped are all in a single section- the section that was stuck in the furnace at peak temperature when the power went off. That is yet another piece of evidence that contradicts whatever reason the insurance company gave for denying the claim.
From a technical point of view, once you have determined that the plates are warped, and it is not the bearings and carriage mechanism in the furnace that is misaligned and causing the scratching, then perhaps you have a couple of options.
Replacing the warped parts of course is the best solution.
Perhaps a less expensive one is to remove the warped plates and then interleave them between good plates so that the “problem” is not as severe and localized. But if in your judgement, that would just ruin more plates, then that is not what you should do.
Based on the expense of this repair and cost of loss of use of this oven, I would hire an electrician to propose and install a permanent corrective action:
1) Wire the fans and carry plates/ slates to a separate circuit.
2) Install a back up generator to keep power running to the fans and keep the plates moving until the oven cools in the event of a power outage.
3) Give your insurance policies and your reports of the damage (take pictures before you do any repairs) to your attorney to review.
Denial is an easy response that requires no critical thinking. As a customer, you deserve more respect than that.
Good luck! Keep us posted on your progress.