Question: How do ovens work and how are they made ?

Ivan Merrick answered on 11 Mar 2019:

Great question. An oven is basically an insulated box with a heater inside. Most ovens are heated by gas or electricity. Heat is measure by a thermometer which tell us the temperature in Degrees Farenheit or Celcius What you want most from an oven is to be able to control the temperature so it gets hot when it is cold and cools when it is hot. This is done by a device call a thermostat. It allows us to set the temperature we want in the oven. When the thermostat senses the heat in the oven is below the temperature we want, it turns the heat up. The temperature will then rise. When the temperature passes the temperature we want, the thermostat turns down the heat and the oven begins to cool down. This heating up and cooling down is what we call a thermal cycle. The thermostat will control the cycle automatically until we have finished cooking and turned the oven off.

How an oven is made depends on what you want the oven to do. At home, your kitchen oven is generally made from metal parts which are bolted together. They are insulated on the outside to keep the heat in and stop someone getting burnt. The thermostat controller on the oven will only allow the temperature to reach 300-350 degrees Celcius.

In industry, ovens are often huge in size and made from steel with special insulating bricks lining the inside. These ovens (also called furnaces) can get up to 2000 degrees Celcius and make the melt metals, which would then be used to make your kitchen oven.