SIC 3567 Industrial Process Furnaces and Ovens

SIC 3567

Firms in this industry are primarily engaged in manufacturing industrial process furnaces, ovens, induction and dielectric heating equipment and related devices. Products not included in the classification include bakery ovens (SIC 3556: Food Products Machinery); cement, wood and chemical kilns (SIC 3559: Special Industry Machinery, Not Elsewhere Classified); cremating ovens (SIC 3569: General Industrial Machinery and Equipment, Not Elsewhere Classified); and laboratory furnaces and ovens (SIC 3821: Laboratory Apparatus and Furniture).

NAICS CODE(S)

333994

Industrial Process Furnace and Oven Manufacturing

According to the U. S. Census Bureau, this industry had 351 firms employing 14,716 employees with a payroll of more than $586 million in 2001. The majority of these establishments employed fewer than 100 employees. The Annual Survey of Manufactures reported that more than 9,000 workers in this industry were in production, and 2001 total shipments were valued at more than $2.2 billion—a decrease from nearly $2.6 billion the previous year.

The concept of using heat to modify a material in some desirable manner originated very early in human history. Its application gave us names for eras like the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, as scientific advancement combined furnace design and fuels to achieve higher and more controllable temperatures and chemical reactions within the combustion or heating chambers. The Industrial Revolution brought the biggest advancements and launched the Steel Age as industry abandoned charcoal as the most common fuel and adopted coal and coke. By the end of the twentieth century, natural gas and electricity were displacing much solid fuel use.

However, near the end of the twentieth century many of the industry's prime customers did not utilize the new technologies. For instance, the steel industry used the Bessemer process, which involved blowing large volumes of heated air through molten iron in a furnace. The American steel industry began using the process in the 1860s. The open-hearth method, developed in the same decade, produced larger volumes of steel over longer periods of time, allowing for better quality control. By 1907, the open-hearth method was more popular than the Bessemer was. In the 1950s, however, furnace designers found they could improve the performance of the Bessemer furnace by using oxygen instead of air and the Bessemer furnace once again took...