Baked to perfection

is using a new method to fit rear spoilers on its S-Type with a custom-built infrared oven at its Castle Bromwich, Birmingham manufacturing plant.

The pyrometer-controlled oven, which is small enough to fit at the spoiler fitting point on the production line, has proved faster, more accurate and more energy efficient than alternative options such as hot-air systems.

The rear spoilers are supplied to the production line with an integral adhesive strip that must be pre-heated before fitting so the adhesive can flow.

Jaguar looked for a design for a pre-heating system from infrared technology specialist

, based in Cheshire, which had previously designed an infrared pre-heating system for the body mouldings on another type of Jaguar car.

Ian Bartley, Heraeus business manager, said the challenge for this application was that Jaguar needed a system to fit a much smaller footprint on the production line. 'We needed to design a bit of kit that would allow two boxes of mouldings to be loaded in at a time and maintain a uniform, accurate temperature control,' he said. 'The last thing you want is for a mould to be fitted on to the Jaguar, then fall off because it hasn't been heated at the right temperature.'