A view of the new Weco/Ceramicx oven platen at santa fe custom skylights

Leading US building products manufacturer Santa Fe Custom Skylights has been reaping the benefit of a successful changeover to infrared-heating thanks to expertise supplied by Weco International and infrared heating manufacturer Ceramicx.

The Santa Fe, New Mexico-based plastics thermoformer has recouped all of its infrared investment within a twelve month period and at a rate of 30% savings on energy. Over this period cycle times have been reduced, energy bills and scrap rates have been lowered as has downtime. Moreover, the retrofit design of new heating system -  control design, zone layout and ceramic emitter selection – has been done in modular fashion and has allowed Custom Skylights to use multiple tools and material types within a single thermoforming line.

Custom Skylights owner Jeff Apodaca says ‘we bought a gas oven a year before switching to Infrared technology via Ceramicx and Weco. We put  a lot of money into it and it didn’t work: we had hot and cold spots, there was no way to control the temperature,  as we needed to continually use it throughout the day. The oven simply kept getting hotter and hotter and we therefore ended up burning a lot of plastic. In addition there was no way to adjust the temperature for heavier gauge acrylic. After a year and day of burn outs, replacement parts and an expired warranty we decided that enough was enough’

Apodaca says that Custom Skylights needed to make a radical change in its heat sourcing.  ‘We knew that we needed a new oven and so we decided to attend a thermoforming conference organised by the Society of Plastics Engineers Continue reading →