Jim Engineering Ltd
11 Ravenhead Business Park , Ravenhead Road , St Helens , Merseyside, United Kingdom

JIM Engineering LTD is a Laboratory and Industrial Oven manufacturers based in the UK. We specialise in the design and manufacturing of standard, industrial, and specialised lab ovens and incubators. We produce a wide range of models with sizes from small laboratory bench models up to large floor standing units with capacities ranging from 10 litres up to 6000 litres or more. We can build to your specific needs and requirements. We also offer a repair, refurbishment, and recycling service.

Our extensive and bespoke product range include:

Hot Box ovens are an ideal entry level oven where absolute accuracy is not required. All Hot box ovens have a dial controller and a safety thermostat and come with wire shelves fitted as standard.

Standard Digital control ovens offer ideal accurate of control and safety. They come with a digital controller, internal fan circulation, and safety thermostat. Wire shelves are standard.

The Heavy Duty oven range is ideally suited to an industrial environment where a really robust cabinet is essential. Industrial parts are heavy duty – such as door catches, hinges, and protected control panels, etc. We are often asked to manufacture bespoke ovens with heavy duty shelving, and racking or trolleys. Within limits – floor-less designs are also available to aid the use of trolleys.

Our High Temperature ovens are manufactured to the highest specifications and consist of extra insulation in the doors. Heavy duty hinges, catches, and seals are used. Four sizes are available depending on the usage.

Materials Testing ovens – temperature, mixing, compaction, and physical testing all contribute to the design of a suitable bituminous mixture for asphalt testing or soil analysis. There are also many applications in engineering. All materials testing cabinets have been designed to cater for a tough working environment.

Moisture Extraction Ovens (drying ovens) are specially designed to provide rapid drying and removal of excess moisture from soil and other moist samples. They are ideally used when standard drying ovens will not perform to user requirements.

Hot Air Sterilisers are manufactured to conform to the strict requirements of hot air sterilization of up to 250°C in life science laboratories, hospitals, and batch pharmacies. As an added option – the hot air sterilisers can be fitted with an audible alarm that signals when the process is complete, as well as a safety door lock if required.

Bespoke manufacturing is a major part of our design and build function. Not only can we adapt our standard models but we can economically design bespoke incubators and ovens to match the high expectations of our customers.

JIM Engineering sell lab ovens and incubators direct to end users such as hospitals and laboratories as well as through distributors in many countries worldwide. Our prices are highly competitive and the quality and performance is paramount to us.

There are several styles of chart recorder units available –

From disk and strip recorders to electronic and multi-function recorders with data storage and communications ports. They all help to provide evidence that the required temperature was maintained as expected for the process in hand.

Special Build clean room incubator ( as illustrated above) was fitted with a multi-channel chart recorder to customer specifications and requirements.

In our experience we have found that for most laboratory incubation applications between -100°C and +75°C a disk chart recorder is acceptable. These are available in several factory set temperature ranges with disk rotation set at 24 hours or 7 days for one rotation.

For general purpose laboratory ovens there are some circular chart recorders are available with an extended range up to 500°C and above. Some disk chart recorders of this type also have high and low alarm functions built in so making them more suitable to verifying process control applications where temperature deviation is important. Disk chart recorders are usually built into the fascia control panel of the incubator or oven but can be supplied loose for wall fixing if preferred. This makes disk chart recorders a good general starting point for many applications.

JIM Engineering does not recommend Z-fold or similar style paper recorders for use with its ovens because it is impossible to look at historical information without removing the paper, checking it and then replacing the paper back in the recorder. This is fiddly and wastes time when ‘instant’ information is what is required.

Many more customers are now specifying that temperature information is stored electronically because it takes little space and can be retrieved and searched quickly.

This is often evidenced as there are many applications in the automotive, aeronautical and other critical industrial areas that require recorders to give absolute proof of temperature maintenance over long periods of time. Models with data storage and retrieval facilities are therefore an essential tool for these industries. Electronically stored data should be able to be retrieved using an SD card, Ethernet port, etc or displayed on the integral screen, analysed remotely and sent to other users worldwide with ease.  This article primarily refers to the Nanodac range which is the market leader in electronically stored data chart recorders, which is why we use them.

We have fitted Nanodac electronic recorders from Eurotherm with great success. Using the full colour display screen and the on-line tools facility it is possible to fully programme the unit to suit the requirements of almost any user. The Nanodac is typically set up to be a multi-channel recorder with data logging but it can additionally be used as the main PID temperature controller for the oven. Multi-step programming of ramp and dwell cycles over prolonged periods is easy. The Nanodac is so good that it meets or exceeds the requirements forAMS2750D (NADCAP) surveillance and when fitted to the quality of JIM Engineering ovens the combination is such that NADCAP Class 1 temperature performance specification, or better, is now standard.

Need Laboratory Oven or Incubator Spares?

Over the course of the last three years – A Leading Engineering company ceased trading then eventually started trading again as DB Thermal Systems Ltd. However – this venture soon fizzled out and they rapidly morphed into RT Thermal Technologies Ltd. Yet again, their third attempt at success was short lived as fewer Lab oven and incubator orders than ever led to their inevitable final closure in 2012. Company closures like this – means that there are literally thousands of laboratory ovens and incubators manufactured by these companies and are left without any spare parts or technical support.

We offer Technical Support.

Our staff are dedicated in offering you help and advice with technical issues. We can supply you with an operational manual if you don’t have one. Help you diagnose a problem or talk you through the necessary steps to resolve it. If you require a replacement part we can ship one out to you, including specific fitting instructions or talk you through the steps on how to fit it. If we can’t help you to resolve a technical issue remotely – the next 2 options available would be for you to return your Lab Oven or Incubator to our factory for testing and fixing or book one of our call-out engineers.

We have stocked up on spare parts of almost every kind in order to be able to keep these ovens in good, serviceable condition. From fan motors and controllers to spare shelves, handles and fabrications – we can help you.

Annual Calibration.

In addition to all the spares and technical support you are ever likely to need to keep your equipment in good working order we at JIM Engineering LTD can also offer annual calibration and preventative maintenance contracts ‘by our service engineers’ if required.