[jcommin]

Shaun - understood. what is the substrate doing?

For instance. I have a gasket product that needs to see a 325 F at the steel core for 3.23 minutes. The oven set point temperature is 435F. Using datalogging, I can monitoring the ramp time of the gasket product until it reaches 325 F and monitor the 3,23 minute time as it sits in the oven. The temp of the product continues to rise trying to reach the oven set point temp until I pull it out of the oven. I have a timer telling me when the the process is done. The bigger the gap between the PMT of the part and set point temperature, the faster the ramp up time and shorter overall process time. There are diminishing returns too. You want to be sure you work within the Cerakote material.

I use data logging for several reasons:

It checks the integrity of the oven, The thermocouple you point out will fail - how do you know it is accurate?
If my product fails to meet the PMT during this time period, I have a problem with the oven.
Historical data collecting.
Optimizing the time/temp process.


I removed an existing oven that dried a solvent based adhesive on steel and aluminum parts. It took 45 minutes to dry the parts. The adhesive is a bonding agent for rubber molding. My new oven takes 8 minutes. Consistent temperature and air flow. I did allot of testing with time/temp to optimize the process.
When I calculate savings, it was a combination of process time, scrap, labor, materials and energy.