Hi,

im working on a project, turning a 3-phase commercial oven into an oven for powdercoating. the problem is, 3 phase isnt available in my area without high costs and a phase converter for this size oven (rated at 17kw) is too expensive for me to think about spending on this, its just for fun..

Now with the 3 phase oven, just by my judgement (which may not be that great, i dont mess with 3 phase much) it looks like the first leg powers the display circuitry and 8 heating elements and the other 2 legs just power about 8 elements each, no more. So none of them work together to do any task, they all heat seperate elements in the oven.

my question is, can i use just the L1 leg and power only the 8 elements (would get hot enough for what i need) as 120v (normal household circuit), or what would i have to do different? keep in mind im not that familiar with this, so any help would be appreciated!

Danny

 

A circuit diagram, even a crude one would help.
Are the heating elements connected phase-to-phase, or only from phase to neutral?

 

We also need to know the voltage, 3 phase 480v or 600v may be a real problem while 208v may not. Also need to know what temp you need to do the powder coating.

 

i will see if i can find something when i get home, i am posting from work right now.

kubeek, each leg goes from phase to neutral, none of the phases connect whatsoever, thats why i was thinking cutting back the number of elements, i may be able to go back down to single phase..

gerty, i will have to look on the machine when i get home and see what i come up with. IF it helps, its a DeLuxe cr-2-8/p-14

heres the closest model i could find to the one i have, http://www.deluxeovens.com/catalog/CR-2-6_PB-14-FRONT.pdf

thats about as good as i can find from here, i will try and find some more info when i get home. thanks for your help!

Danny

 

My first suggestion would be to see if you can't find a surplus VFD (variable frequency drive). They are designed for motors but since they use pulse width modulation you may be able to use it to adjust the temperature of the heating elements. They take input voltage (single or three phase), rectify it to a DC bus and then pulse-width modulate it to control motor speed. Usually one configured for a single phase input can output PWM 3-phase. There's more to it than that but I bet you could find a used or surplus one somewhere.


It's worth a shot, anyway.

 

Hey Danny,
These ovens are made in Florida, probably run at 220V, which is three phase, in most cases. If it has a plug, any electrician can wire it up for you.
Dan

 

Easy to do. I have not worked on your model oven in the feild, but I worked on a similar model the other day that had the schematic showing both single phase operation and 3 phase operation. The only difference were the wiring of the heaters to the two 3 pole contactors connecting them. So I would say yes it should be easy if you can read a schematic. It will get just as hot, but will use more amperage on single phase operation, better check sizing of your power cord. Hope this helps.