Over the years, ASA has solved a lot of different, and sometimes difficult applications. We have designed and constructed "thermal target" that operated at 1600 F and oversaw the installation 11,053 ft high, on Mammoth Mountain. Unfortunately, the caterpillar snow plows constantly damaged the wiring to the unit. ASA returned to the mountain, this time to move it to a  new  location. The airforce, as might be expected went to extremes. From the sub zero, elevation of Mammoth mountain, it was move to below sea level in the hot California desert. The oven and its controls were then mounted on a trailer and now are taken out for a ride when it is time to serve again, calibrating high tech sensors.

 A number of aerospace applications have utilized ASA's talents in design and fabrication. A portable roll out infra red composite curing station
is used in the manufacture of coweling on the MD-80 airplane. This is flexible such that the heaters shaped in the circular form of the coweling can be adjusted both horizontally and vertically. The controls provide accurate temperature, alert operators after required cure time and record the profile of the process.
Other composite curring applications include golf shafts, tennis rackets and snow boards. ASA has supplied components as well as complete installation for large thermoforming machines. Plastic sheets 112 inches X 96 inches are heated by radiant panels. These are then pulled over a mold and a vacuum drawn. Once cooled, they are the beginning of a spa. The appropriate heater is critical in this process. Each must radiate at the right frequency for optimum heating of the plastic. Then we use individual IR Sensors for each zone to control even temperature over the entire sheet. The heat up time is controlled for perfect saturation. The real advantage of this process is improved quality and reduction of scrap. There are satellites in orbit partly through the assistance of ASA. Custom platens housing cartridge heaters control the heat reaching individual printed circuit boards, whose value exceeds $100,000.00 each. Radiant heaters on the other  side of the board are controlled by IR sensors.

Each board has several zones and a Watlow Anafaze control with Ramp and Soak to establish the temperature profile. The program is monitored and modified using a computer and Anawin-32 software. To aid the operators, each zone has a series of LED's showing the temperature as "below", "at" or "above" setpoint. Cables for heaters and thermocouples join the platen and control. The assembly is built to UL standards.

Many applications involve , getting maximum performance without destroying the heater. A “cascade" control is often used where an inner loop (control on the element) limits heat available for the outer loop (process). This can be quite involved in setting up the control parameters and only the effect on the process can be observed. A second approach utilizes one control on the element which interrupts the signal from a second process control to the heater. Maximum heater temperatures can be established and all temperatures can be observed. This works well with zero cross applications.