This year Davron celebrates 20 years of making custom precision ovens for a broad range of pharmaceutical, automotive, aerospace, and food industries. Founder Ron Speicher (UTC, 1986) saw the need for custom design after first running an HVAC repair business (now Metro Services Inc.) His first ovens were designed for a Cleveland, TN manufacturer to make brake pads and disks. Increasingly complex requests have followed - like curing foam roll-to-roll and 8 feet wide, bonding automotive carpet to backing, or annealing small glass vials. Some of Davron’s ovens can operate up to 2000 degrees F, but all are made to have touch-safe temperatures on the outside skin by designing the shell and interior as distinct layers; and most allow the product to be safely loaded and unloaded by hand also. Today the deep experience of the men who started the business is being transferred to a small group of engineers including three recent UTC grads. They design each application from a blank page by evaluating the customer’s requirements for the product that must be heated (or cooled), then developing a 2D concept for approval and then a 3D model in AutoCAD Inventor. The model gets fully detailed providing a BOM for parts and Assembly diagrams for the shop. Typically, one engineer owns the entire project from concept to construction, and on through testing to final assembly in the customer’s location. While some of the earliest ovens have been refurbished, none have yet needed to be replaced. Repeat business based on customer growth points to strong satisfaction with all the heating machinery that Davron makes.
Note: PDH certificates were available for attendance at this meeting. If someone would like an electronic copy of PDH certificates for this or previous meetings, please contact Fred Sumrall at fsumrall@epbfi.com.