German machinery maker Münstermann has developed a plate-curing oven that cures battery plates in less than four hours using the Concure process rather than the conventional 30 hours.
The Concure process is a patented rapid curing process, which Münstermann claim that including the loading and unloading time the total process time is approximately five hours. The short turnaround time allows manufacturers to switch between batches of product types quickly with no need to intermediary storage of plates.
The patented process is based on the combination of using higher temperatures than conventional curing ovens with highly pressured steam.
The company has supplied curing chambers to Willard Batteries and an unnamed Asian battery manufacturer. The capacity of the ovens is 37,000 plates per curing session; Münstermann said, based on their internal calculations, investment costs could be halved for a company to ramp up plate curing using the Concure curing ovens.
