Getting Along the Working and Application of Forced Air Ovens

The laboratory oven is an indispensable instrument for extracting and drying many substances. Consequently, it is significantly used in all branches of the chemical industry and laboratories.

The importance of the oven for industrial processes such as roasting or baking has been recognized so long ago that its construction has become an art that will be difficult to supplant with any other process. One such oven used in the laboratory is forced-air laboratory ovens known to provide better temperature distribution, low energy consumption, and heat losses via radiation at high temperatures.

 

Working Of Forced Air Ovens for Laboratory

These Forced Air Ovens generate heat inside their compartment by applying hot air and steam. Hot air is continuously supplied to the oven, whereas a portion of the hot air is changed into steam. The steam from the oven is then used to supply heat or other processes by extraction, distillation, and cooling process.

The hot air and steam are supplied from a heating or cooling unit through windows and openings on the oven chamber's side, roof, or bottom. These openings can be as simple as round holes in the chamber's surface for supplying exhaust and doors that can be closed for providing a vacuum and open during internal heat exchange.

Applications of Forced Air Ovens in A Laboratory

These ovens are widely used laboratories for heating chemicals or substances at high temperatures. Other uses of forced air ovens include

• The forced-air oven is used for drying solids, liquids, or gases. For example, it can be used to prepare dry materials necessary to manufacture paints, dyes, and other pigments.
• In analytical chemistry, organic chemicals are dried at high temperatures to remove specific components such as water and other volatile components before the analysis.
• The control of evaporation depends on the type of material being dried. To eliminate any uncertainty, a precise knowledge of drying characteristics is required by determining moisture content at various temperatures and times under specified conditions.

Thus, some oils and fats will only slowly evaporate at 100 °C, whereas others will rapidly evaporate at room temperature or below; this characteristic is volatility. Steam is used to reduce volatility in several oils, fats and greases.