Baker Furnace of Brea, Calif., shipped a gas-fired batch oven to an aluminum-forging company. The industrial oven will be used to preheat large aluminum ingots used to manufacture parts for the aerospace industry. The oven, which has a maximum temperature rating of 1000°F, has work-chamber dimensions of 14 feet wide x 11 feet long x 6 feet high. After preheating, the ingots are removed from the oven and placed in a forging press that forms the aluminum into a shape.

The oven chamber is designed to withstand the impact of aluminum ingots weighing over 3,000 pounds as a forklift operator drops the aluminum ingots into the oven chamber. A 10-inch-thick hard castable refractory floor was one of the design features to ensure the oven could withstand the loading process.