New guide to 11 NCAT error codes and their meanings

The NCAT ignition oven has been at the forefront of mix design since the late ’90s. In that time there have been a few improvements over the form and function of the unit, but for the most part, the NCAT ignition oven has stayed the same. You put your mix in the chamber and the liquid burns off, leaving behind the dried aggregate.

Everything works smoothly provided you maintain your furnace regularly and there are definetely never any hiccups right?

That is until you power your unit on one day and you are left with a big error message displayed on the screen. Panic! You’ve got several burns to do today and you can’t get that annoying error message off your unit. What do you do now?

Well step one would be to take a step back and breath. Sometimes cycling the power on your unit ( That’s the technical way of saying, “try turning it off and on again”) can fix issues. However this article would be very short and not exactly helpful now would it?

Let’s instead assume that cycling the power did not clear the error and so now we have to figure out what is wrong. Fortunately, we have handy error codes to help guide us to what’s really going on. Today we’re going to dive into those error codes and describe what could really be going on.

The NCAT error codes

Before we begin there are a few things I have to say first before my legal team will let me post this.

• I can not actually guarantee that any of the fixes described in this article will fix your current issue, nor can I magically fix your unit with my amazing talents in communication
• These are very general guidelines and are not meant to help with specific issues.
• The NCAT ignition oven has a very unique way of displaying error codes and the error code you see may not actually be your issue.

Ok, that last bullet point needs a bit of explaining. The NCAT error code system was designed to display error codes one by one and in sequential order. That means that if your unit is displaying E001, it will not show you any other errors until E001 is fixed. This is why repairing units can be tricky, and why Gordon Technical specializes in NCAT repair.

Ok, on to the error codes

E001 and E002 indicate that one of your thermocouples could be bad. E001 is the chamber thermocouple and E002 is the afterburner/filter. In the manual, the error is described as THERMOCOUPLE – OPEN. I say could be bad because it is not always the case that a thermocouple has failed.

E003 and E004 indicate that the temperature in the chamber or filter has exceeded its setpoint. The chamber is set at 675C ( by default) and the Filter is set to 975C ( again by default). There are a number of errors that can cause this issue and we highly suggest that you contact us before proceeding with a fix.

E005 is a door interlock issue that occurs when you run a test.

E007 indicates that there is an issue with your analog board in either the way it’s communicating with your thermocouples or in the way it is performing. This error code normally takes a bit of troubleshooting and should only be done by a repair technician (Or us, you could always hire Gordon Technical). Replacing the analog board does not always fix this issue.

E008 indicates that there is a scale connection issue. You will get this error if you don’t have a scale in the NCAT or if the scale board doesn’t detect a scale, to begin with. You cannot replace your scale and not replace the scale board. They are a packaged unit and must remain together. Again though, this error should really be left to trained technicians. Installing new scales can be finicky and can lead to a whole slew of errors.

E009 indicates that the setpoints that are entered on the unit are out of range. This is usually done by entering in information incorrectly when setting up your unit. If you are experiencing this issue go ahead and give us a call.

E010 and E011 both indicate that there is an issue with either the way a thermocouple is installed or in the way the thermocouples are communicating with the NCAT. This is a more advanced issue and should be fixed by trained technicians.

E012 is somewhat but not really related to E008. They are both scale issues, however, E012 is a more advanced and complicated issue than E008. When you get an E012, the scale is having a hard time communicating with the main logic board. This could be brought on by a countless number of issues and it’s not one we see in the field very often. When it happens, we highly recommend that you call a service technician to come out to your site to fix it.

Your NCAT is an exceptional tool and as long as it is regularly maintained, you won’t see too many errors during its lifetime. Of course, no amount of maintenance can fix issues with power, or if a component was made incorrectly, however having a good service team behind you can lead to less downtime and more production.

Gordon Technical Sales and Service has been maintaining and repairing NCAT’s all across the country for the last 14 years. We stock every part and component in our warehouse and every one of our employees ( including office staff) is trained to understand both how the unit operates and what common issues are. This is how we serve our customers the best, and how we have become the national service center for the manufacturer, Thermo-Fisher Scientific. If you are interested in having your NCAT serviced or calibrated please let us know here.