Laboratory ovens are multi-purpose appliances that serve scientific and manufacturing industries. Each laboratory oven type performs a distinct function that may be required for research and development and other applications.

The most commonly available laboratory ovens range in temperature from surrounding to approximately 300℃. These ovens are primarily seen in chemistry, pharmaceuticals, biology and forensics. Ovens that operate beyond this temperature range are used traditionally for specialized applications in materials processing, physics and electronics.

Keep reading till the end to learn about the many uses of laboratory ovens.

Types of Laboratory Ovens

Before we know about the various uses of lab ovens, let us take a look at some of the different types of laboratory ovens available.

Standard Digital Ovens - This type of oven is built for serving general purposes such as heating and drying. The design of such ovens are intended to offer safety, control and accuracy.

Heavy Duty Ovens - This is the type of oven used for industrial applications and is popularly referred as an Industrial Oven. These ovens are robust and bolstered with heavy-duty fittings/furnishings to withstand the curing and drying usage impacts.


Wax Melting Ovens - As the name itself suggests, this type of oven is used for melting wax and maintaining it for histology.

There are more other oven types such as hot box ovens or high temperature ovens.

Different Uses of Laboratory Ovens

Annealing

It is the process that involves heating and then cooling of a material. Materials such as glass or steel go through this process. This is done to reduce the material’s hardness and increase its ductility. Typically, High Temperature Ovens are used for this process. The process requirement is common in the field of metallurgy, medical science and manufacturing of medical devices.

Drying

An essential requirement for any clinical, environmental and biological labs, for the drying purpose, the use of gravity convection, vacuum ovens or forced air ovens are common. These ovens work to remove moisture from the sample and dry them.

Die-bond Curing

This is a combination of drying and baking, which can be performed by laboratory ovens and cure substances for hardening the sample’s chemical composition. This process helps in producing epoxies, plastics, glues and rubbers that are used in nanotechnology, polymer research and semiconductor industries.

Sterilizing

Another use of laboratory ovens are for the purpose of sterilizing. The ovens help to sterilize laboratory equipment and hardware. Usually, this process is carried out in a hot air oven where the ideal temperature is required to be at least 160℃. The contents are needed to be tracked for 45 to 60 minutes at this temperature.

Polyimide Baking

This is another use of laboratory ovens where the sample is added in the liquid form. The polyimide sample is then baked thermally to generate a thin layer or film for various purposes that also includes stress buffer coating for redistribution layers, chip bonding, adhesion, etc.

There are many other uses of laboratory ovens and which is why they are crucial equipment in a laboratory and manufacturing setting.