Research and Development

Our company policy is to remain at the forefront of the industry, and to do this we believe R&D is an essential aspect. Over the last two decades Thermopower Furnaces has been involved in dedicated research into the electrical firing of units and products as well as developing and patenting various processes. Our “Tempo Furnace” for the ceramics industry was such a case in point. Thermopower furnaces have also received a prestigious accolade in the form of the EEEDA Eskom award.

We are often approached with an idea relating to a product, and we work together with client to establish a new technique or a more economically viable method of thermally treating the product.

An example of our commitment to research and development is our DRH (Direct Resistance Heated) kiln which has been patented in South Africa. All test work was done at Thermopower before the application took a quantum leap from laboratory scale to a full production unit of 3000 Kg per hour.

Sasol trials were conducted using the development unit at Thermopower furnaces on various coke materials. Once Sasol realized the potential of this technology, their Project Engineers undertook a multi-million Rand project, the heart of which was a Thermopower DRH kiln. The project was completed within three months of the decision to proceed. The DRH kiln lends itself to any reaction requiring a controlled atmosphere, providing that the constituents of reaction are electrically conductive at high temperatures.

Our Team has successfully completed numerous projects in various fields. While our team is fully qualified and confident in dealing in large projects with important industry corporations, we are equally committed to adapt to smaller scale projects with private companies and individual research agents.

Successful projects and joint ventures have been completed with partners such as CSIR, MINTEK, ANGLO RESEARCH, and SASOL to name a few.