A Numerical Design Approach for the Continuous Radiation Paint Curing Ovens in Automotive Industries

Design of radiation paint cure ovens in automotive industries is an important yet difficult task which has not been discussed adequately in the open literature. This is particularly true when complex body frames are considered. In this paper a numerical dynamic optimization algorithm is proposed which provides the optimum temperatures of a fixed number of radiation panels installed on the ceiling of an automotive paint cure oven. Using a paint cure window criterion to define the admissible design space and the objective function, a nearly uniform and satisfactory paint curing condition is obtained at the optimum design point. To describe the method in a simple, clear and computationally affordable context, a two-dimensional section of an oven and the automobile body is considered. It is shown that even the classical steepest descent optimization method converges fast enough in this particular application. The proposed method is also applicable in three-dimensional problems. J. Color Sci. Tech. 3(2009), 107-119.© Institute for Color Science and Technology.