Composites, Fiberglass & Advanced Materials calculator
Cure Cycle Capacity Calculator
Turn the batches on the production plan into oven hours and test them against the cure window the schedule allows. Queue, load and documentation time is added as an allowance you control.
What this calculator does
- Oven hours the cure batches need, allowance included, checked against the cure window the schedule allows.
Formula used
- Base cure hours = cure batches ÷ cure throughput
- Queue and documentation hours = base cure hours × allowance ÷ 100
- Cure cycle capacity = base cure hours + queue and documentation hours
- Margin to cure window = cure window − cure cycle capacity
Inputs explained
- Cure Batches: Batches needed to clear the job, from the production plan.
- Cure Throughput: Batches the oven completes per hour, from the load chart.
- Queue and Documentation Allowance: Allowance for queue, load and paperwork, from your standard.
- Cure Window: Hours the schedule leaves before the cure must finish.
How to use the result
- Best suited to scheduling batches through one oven, testing a shipment window, deciding between one oven and two.
- A ramp change or a larger tooling set moves throughput, so recheck capacity when either changes. Batches with different cure schedules cannot share one throughput number.
Current U.S. benchmarks
- The producer price index for plastic resins and materials stands at 280.569 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 6.6% from a year earlier. Quotes priced off last quarter's material cost miss this move.
- Steel mill PPI stands at 381.162 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 23.4% from a year earlier. New factory orders are up 8.5% year over year (Census).
Common questions
- What is cure throughput per oven hour? The batches or loads the oven completes in an hour under the schedule in use, ramp, dwell and cool down included. Take it from the load chart or recent run records, not a single best hour.
- What does the queue allowance cover? Waiting for the oven, loading and unloading, paperwork and the checks between batches. At the defaults the 20% allowance adds 16 hours on top of 80 base hours of cure time.
- Why does capacity have to fit the cure window? A thermoset cure is a temperature and time schedule, and batches finishing after the window closes cannot ship in it. The margin row shows the hours left, and a negative value means the plan is short.
- Can a second oven double the cure capacity? Only if it runs the same cure schedule and throughput. If the second oven has a different ramp or load size, calculate each one against its own throughput and add the usable windows separately.
Related guides
Last reviewed 2026-10-01.