Processing Equipment

Shrink ovens: function, variants and application

Our FITCOTUBE® heat shrink tubing is the centerpiece of GREMCO’s extensive range of components for high-tech wiring applications. These heat shrinkable tubing can be diversified into a number of different groups of tubing suitable for various different applications in the automotive sector, as well as in medical technology, environmental technology, and general industry. In principle, a simple heat gun is sufficient for consistent shrinkage. Nevertheless, shrink ovens provide an excellent alternative to the conventional heat gun to guarantee a greatly accelerated and simplified shrinking process. Accordingly, they are essential for effective, reproducible industrial processing.

How does a shrink oven work

In general, these are used for processing shrink products. Concerning the mode of operation, it is possible to distinguish primarily between

• infrared shrink ovens and
• hot-air ovens.

Therefore, the shrinking process is the result of exposing the product to hot air or infrared radiation, enabling precise calibration of the processing parameters such as process temperature, processing time, and number of pieces for an optimum result. Either way, in addition to consistent shrinkage, even materials that are difficult to shrink, such as PTFE, can be shrunk easily. Additionally, customized production according to individual requirements is possible by guaranteeing application-specific receptacles. Moreover, simultaneous processing of several products is made possible utilizing a shrink oven. Matching our FITCOTUBE® shrink tubes, our partners® offer the ideal shrink ovens to enable independent, fast, and precise shrinking in automotive as well as in various other industries. These have already established themselves in the automotive industry and are used successfully in numerous applications. Furthermore, the above-mentioned equipment can be operated and networked via the Ethernet interface easily.

Variations and application

In industrial applications, all types of shrink ovens outperform any alternative methods of shrinkage. In addition to the advantages mentioned above, they allow for the operator to perform other tasks simultaneously. Nevertheless, a few differences regarding the ideal field of application of the different variants of shrink ovens are noticeable. Thus, infrared systems provide particularly uniform, low-noise, and energy-saving processing, even for very large margins. In turn, hot-air systems are to be preferred for shrinking materials with particularly high-temperature requirements, such as PTFE.

Furthermore, both infrared ovens and hot-air furnaces differentiate between standard variants such as continuous ovens, conveyor belt ovens, and customer-specific versions. The latter are specially adapted to the desired requirement profile and include additional application options. These include individual product fixtures for maximum precision, variably adjustable processing parameters, centering devices, or a cycle counter.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information on shrink tubing and shrink ovens.