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Applied Thermal Engineering

SOPARA ThermIQ™: understand, secure and optimise your thermal processes

We secure your thermal decisions through a proven method combining analysis, testing and validation, to design perfectly adapted and high-performing solutions.

Discover our method

Comprehensive Expertise in the Service of Thermal Performance

Thermal Expertise

  • Processing of complex and critical materials
  • 80 years of expertise, capitalised measured test results
  • Multi-technology mastery for optimal arbitration

Airflow Expertise

  • Mastery of complex airflows in industrial environments
  • Design of oven extraction and ventilation flows
  • Management of critical flows: solvents, fumes, sensitive atmospheres

Automation

  • Intelligent PLCs controlling the thermal process
  • Real-time regulation and integrated control
  • High-precision multi-zone control

Our Method

THERMIQ™ structures our approach to understanding, testing and deploying thermal solutions adapted to often complex and innovative processes. It combines analysis, testing and engineering to secure your decisions, reduce uncertainties and guarantee reliable performance under industrial conditions.

Discover the benefits

    01

    Audit

    Understand your process to secure your technology decisions

    Sopara analyses your processes, materials, constraints and industrial objectives in depth, to understand how they actually work.
    This phase mobilises thermal engineers and the design office to structure the analysis: functional diagrams, initial technical hypotheses, calculations and identification of key parameters. Through an agnostic approach, every option is objectified. The objective is to transform complexity into a reliable, substantiated and secured technical decision, before any investment.

    02

    Testing

    Factual data to objectify your technology choice and secure your investments

    Before any recommendation, we subject your material and process to rigorous comparative tests. Every technology is tested without preconceptions, measured and documented under conditions close to your industrial reality. Programmed heating profiles, calibrated non-contact pyrometry, reproducible curves: you receive a complete report, with factual data and our analysis to help you decide and invest with confidence. Our method is built on 80 years of practice and close to 10,000 tests conducted on real industrial materials and processes.

    03

    System Design

    A complete thermal architecture designed, optimised and validated with you before manufacturing

    A successful laboratory test does not guarantee an installation that holds up in production. Scaling to industrial size introduces additional complexity: emitter volumetrics, airflow management, multi-zone control, conveying systems, maintenance access, interactions between the oven and the regulation cabinet. Our thermal engineers, mechanical design office and automation experts work in concert to design the complete architecture. The solution is validated with you before entering manufacturing.

    04

    Production Launch

    From the Sopara workshop to your production line, without compromise on quality

    Before any delivery, the installation is fully assembled and tested under operational conditions in our workshops, to ISO 9001 standards. You are invited to validate on site: it is the confirmation that what leaves corresponds exactly to what was validated together. Transport is handled by selected longstanding partners, with specific crating packaging. Installation can be carried out by your teams or a local integrator, but commissioning is systematically assured by a Sopara engineer on site.

    05

    Training

    Better trained to choose better, control better, maintain better

    Sopara does not just deliver an installation — it transfers expertise. Upstream: we train your internal teams in thermal science so they can understand the phenomena, evaluate and decide with full knowledge of the facts. At commissioning, your operators are trained to control your ovens and optimise their performance. We also certify your local technicians to intervene autonomously and reduce downtime. Qualiopi-certified organisation, we have been training since 2015 with a 99% satisfaction rate.

What the ThermIQ™ Approach Changes for You

ThermIQ™: mastering your thermal processes to guarantee your industrial performance.

Comparative multi-technology
testing, documented

Industrial risk
reduction

Agnostic audit and triple mastery of thermal, airflow and automation

Overall process performance

Architecture validated before manufacturing, tested to ISO 9001 before delivery

Durable industrial reliability

Training and design conceived from the outset for maintenance and safety

Autonomy and sustained performance over time

They Trusted Us.
Here Is What It Changed.

Case study 1

Forvia (formerly Faurecia)

Automotive, interiors and acoustic insulation

Context

A manufacturer of carpets and acoustic insulating parts for the automotive industry, Forvia operated dozens of thermocompression installations equipped with low-grade infrared with response times that were too long, excessive energy consumption, and installations that were self-cooking and ageing prematurely.

The Challenge

Thick, poorly conductive materials, considered impossible to heat by infrared, previously processed in overpressure hot-air ovens. Large, costly machines: a single installation per plant, with zero redundancy. The slightest failure paralysed the site.

Method Steps Applied

  • Theory training + lab testing of client samples
  • Tests with double-sided heating and precise regulation: fast surface rise, controlled core penetration, without surface damage
  • Replacement of low-grade emitters with Sopara high-performance emitters + multi-zone regulation cabinets
  • Standardisation of panels, cabinets and pyrometers across all sites: a single setting sheet transfers a programme from one plant to another

The Impact

-50% energy

Per part produced

Zero scrap rate

Heating-related

+10% productivity

Across the entire line

Case study 2

European PVC floor covering manufacturer (Sopara client for 50 years)

Floor coverings / construction

Context

A long-standing industrial partner wished to develop a new generation of floor coverings integrating a foamed PVC layer (a colourless, translucent, poorly conductive material) to enrich its range and differentiate in its market.

The Challenge

Gelating this foamed PVC in a few seconds on an industrial line advancing at over 20 metres per minute, in a very constrained space. No thermal technology available in this sector could achieve this performance. All other players used standard medium-wave infrared.

Method Steps Applied

  • Identification of short-wave infrared as the technology suited to this colourless, translucent product
  • 5 test sessions at Sopara: comparison medium-wave IR vs. short-wave IR at increasing power densities, filmed tests to observe smoke appearance, thermocouples embedded between product layers to measure core energy transmission
  • Pilot oven at 1/8 scale (50 cm wide instead of 4 m) reproducing exactly the technologies validated in testing
  • Installation of the final industrial oven mixing short-wave and medium-wave IR, integrated into the available space on the existing line

The Impact

20 m/min

Complete treatment in just 6 seconds

70% energy efficiency

vs. 20% for hot-air ovens

Patented product

Simultaneous product and process innovation

sopara academy sopara academy

Training designed for your industrial reality

Thermal training, Qualiopi-certified,
built around your materials and processes.

Contact us

Our thermal training programmes are aimed at R&D, methods, design office and production management profiles, including upstream of any project.
Theory lays the physical foundations. Practical tests, conducted in our laboratory with your own samples, anchor learning in your reality.

Maximum 5 participants, at Sopara’s premises, to guarantee exchange and adaptation. Qualiopi-certified, 99% satisfaction since 2015.

Installation Monitoring and
Thermal Process
Maintenance

Maintenance and Service Continuity

A buffer stock of critical components is sized at your site, based on a risk analysis and MTBF of each part, to intervene immediately without supply delays. In the event of an incident, a structured protocol takes over: locally certified Level 1 technician, remote support hotline at Level 2, Sopara engineer on-site at Level 3. The objective: drastically reduce downtime.

Annual Performance
Audit

Every year, our engineers carry out a comprehensive audit of your installations: infrared thermography, electrical check and energy performance analysis. You receive a detailed report with concrete optimisation recommendations. Result: equipment that maintains its performance over time, and informed investment decisions.

Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance

SOPARA ThermalCore™ provides real-time control: multi-zone regulation, dynamic adaptation, securing of critical cycles. SOPARA Central™ capitalises process data to go further: advanced monitoring, drift detection, predictive maintenance and continuous optimisation,  towards installations that are ever more high-performing and intelligent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Our tests are an independent service. You leave with a complete report — data, analyses, recommendations — which you are free to use however you wish. Some clients entrust us only with this phase. It is moreover often the starting point of a relationship of trust.

That depends on the complexity of the process. Tests can be scheduled within a week. Designing and manufacturing a complete installation requires several months of engineering with regular validation milestones. On highly innovative projects, the journey can be longer : some have required several years before evolving the standards of their sector, as in aerospace.

Our protocol provides for three levels: immediate intervention by your certified local technician, remote support via our hotline, then despatch of a Sopara engineer if necessary. A buffer stock of critical components is sized at your site in advance to avoid any supply delay.

Yes, and it is even recommended. Your technical teams are welcome : they bring their own samples, ask their questions live and leave with a concrete understanding of the results. This presence enriches the test and accelerates decision-making.

Both. Retrofit is a significant part of our activity. Replacing an ageing thermal installation with an infrared solution often makes it possible to improve performance, increase productivity and significantly reduce the footprint, sometimes by 2 to 4 times, where available space no longer allows new lines to be added.

Sopara generates 40% of its revenue internationally. Commissioning is always assured by a Sopara engineer on site, anywhere in the world. For follow-up, we rely on a network of local agents and our remote monitoring system.

Our expertise is thermal in the broad sense. We design infrared ovens, but if your process requires another technology — hot air, conduction — we know how to accompany you in its deployment. The best solution for your process guides our recommendations, not the technology we manufacture.

SOPARA Central™ continuously collects your installation parameters — temperatures, power levels, speeds — and presents them to you via dedicated dashboards. You thus have the means to control in real time and identify drifts before they become failures.

Yes. The “heat transfer and infrared heating” training programme is open to all manufacturers, clients or prospects. Its objective is to give you the keys to understanding and evaluating the solutions on the market, including ours. As a training organisation, we are Qualiopi-certified.

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Agro alimentaire Automobile Aéronautique Défense Énergie Aménagement intérieur Textile technique

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