Salt Bath Features
Quiet Drive Solid State Relay
All salt bath models are standard equipped with our Quiet Drive Solid State relay system. The salt bath process can be a lengthy process and traditional, hard-contact mechanical relays tend to fail early and always at the wrong time. The solid state relays have no moving parts and are expected to last the life of the kiln.
Solid state also offers the benefit of tighter temperature control as they can be switched on and off very, very quickly. Hard-contact relays, on the other hand, tend to be limited to one on-off cycle every ten seconds or so. It's a major improvement in performance and reliability.
Lastly, our solid state relays will only turn on and off when the AC voltage is at 0V. While this is designed to help keep the solid state relay running cool it offers a specific benefit to heating element life. Heating elements love to be turned on and off at 0V and they show that love by offering greater life!
View our Quiet Drive Solid State Relay Info Here
TAP Control w/ Specialized Software
The salt bath process requires an enhanced feature-set not found in ordinary temperature controls. The manufacturers of the TAP control (SDS Industries), has designed their control with these enhanced features.
The TAP control allows for multiple thermocouples to control via both the firing chamber and salt bath environments along with a separate over-temp circuit for ultimate safety. SDS also modified their software to work exclusively with our Quiet Drive Solid State relay system to give tighter temperature control, extended heating element life and expected lifetime operation.
A tip of the hat to SDS as they are only controls manufacturer capable of providing these custom features.
Over-Temperature Thermocouple
The addition of an Over-temp (high-limit) thermocouple adds to the safety factor built into every salt bath kiln.
The over-temp thermocouple circuit is designed to abort the process in the event of exceeding the process temperature.
Grounded Salt Pot and Thermocouples
To protect you against any electrical faults Evenheat has provided electrical grounds on the salt pot and all thermocouples. If a fault (short circuit) occurs the grounding of these features safely dissipates electrical energy.
Evenheat salt bath kilns produce heat electrically via heating elements placed into the firing chamber walls. The nature of the salt bath process exposes the user to electrically conductive features such as the salt pot, molten salts and thermocouples. Each of these features extend into and out of the electrically charged firing chamber. Any fault within the heating element causing it to make contact with any of these features will cause them to conduct electricity.
Evenheat does offer salt pots for sale that are equipped with grounding hardware included. If you intend to provide your own salt pot we require that a grounding mechanism be included in your design.
Drip Shields
Pulling a work piece from a salt bath generally brings some of the molten salt out with it in the form of some drops and slight run-off. This is called drag-out: it's hot, it's liquid and it's damaging. Allowing drag-out to make contact with the firebrick lid, control panels and worst of all the controller faceplate, causes extensive damage. For this reason Evenheat provides our salt bath kilns with replaceable, stainless steel drip shields on both the lid and control panel. The drip shields take the hits, not the kiln!
3" Firebrick Construction
Our salt bath kilns are built using premium Thermal-Ceramics K-23, 3" firebrick. This particular brick is a thicker version of the standard and offers excellent thermal properties.
We use this firebrick in all of our high temperature designs including our KO Series of heat treat ovens. Thermal-Ceramics firebrick is made in the USA from some very special Georgia ground. It's the best firebrick available.
Chamber Thermocouple
Evenheat salt bath kilns are designed with a separate chamber thermocouple designed to control the salt bath kiln during the heat-up, pre-molten stage of the salt bath process. Controlling the pre-molten stage via the chamber temperature allows for reliable and ultimately safe operation. Once the salts become molten, temperature control is then switched over to the immersion thermocouple for precise bath temperature control.
Immersion Thermocouple
Evenheat salt bath kilns use a dedicated immersion thermocouple designed to control the heat treat process temperature by directly measuring the temperature of the molten salts. While initial heat-up is controlled via the chamber thermocouple, heat treat (molten) temperature is controlled via the immersion thermocouple. Once the salts become molten, temperature control is switched to the immersion thermocouple for precise bath temperature control.
The immersion thermocouple is supplied with a mount that allows it to be properly positioned on the lip of the salt pot.
Swing View Control Enclosure
The TAP control is fitted within our Swing View adjustable control enclosure. The swing view is a pivoting, swing-up enclosure that allows the user to rotate the TAP control up to a comfortable viewing and programming angle and then place it back down for salt bath operation. Once down, the TAP control is protected from drag-out via our control panel drip shield and can easily be seen from across your shop. It's that simple.
The swing view allows us to position the TAP control at the top of the salt bath kiln for relaxed and easy use. No crouching or squinting needed.
Easily Replaceable Thermocouples
Salt bath thermocouples feature an Inconel sheath. While Inconel provides excellent resistant to the effects of the salt bath it will need replacement at some point.
All of our salt bath thermocouples are designed with standard sized Type K thermocouple connectors that allow them to be very easily replaced.
Sectional Design
We've designed the chamber of the salt bath kilns to be easily disassembled. As much as we never want to see it happen damage to your chamber can occur, particularly with a salt pot that has sprung a leak. Each section of the chamber and floor is secured to each other through the use of stainless plates.
Evenheat does not use quick-release buckles as they tend to allow for section-shifting and firebrick wear especially with a kiln that is moved.
Staggered Heating Element Design
In the effort to reduce the possibility of un-even salt heat-up we have staggered the heating element connections on those models with multiple heating element circuits (models 718 and 818).
Un-even salt heat-up, particularly a colder top, can result in pressure build-up causing eruption of the salts.
Technically, heating elements 1 and 3 are in series and heating elements 2 and 4 are in series. Any heating element failure results in the remaining applied heat to be distributed more evenly from top to bottom which serves to minimize temperature variation from top to bottom, thus reducing the possibility of salt eruption.
Lid Access
The Salt Bath kilns can use a variety of salt pot diameters.
Both the 709 and 718 models are standard equipped with a 4.75" access hole in the lid, suitable for a 4" ID salt pot.
The Salt bath 818 model is standard equipped with a 6.625" access hole suitable for a 6" ID salt pot.
Additional lids are available with access holes to fit other diameters as well as lids with no access holes that allow you to create the exact fit for your custom salt pot.
Loud Alarm Jack
Salt Bath models are standard equipped with a Loud Alarm Output Jack for use with our Loud Alarm Option.
All of our controls feature an audible alarm. These alarms let you know when you've reached temperature, and more importantly, when it's time to quench. These alarms however, aren't really loud enough to break through the noise found in a working shop. In response, we've included an alarm output jack on the bottom of the control enclosure that allows you to plug in our Loud Alarm (sold separately). Just plug it in and enjoy 80db of irritating alarm bliss.
You can purchase the Loud Alarm here:
