FAQ Cremation Frequently Asked Questions Cremations

What is a cremation? And why do we perform cremations? Well let’s start with some history about cremations. Those have first evidence at least dating from 20,000 years ago in our archaeological records. The Mungo Lady, the remains of a partly cremated body found at Lake Mungo in Australia. Alternative death rituals emphasizing one method of disposal of a body-inhumation (burial), or exposure-have gone through periods of preference throughout history. In the Middle East and Europe, both burial and cremation are evident in the archaeological record in the Neolithic era.

What is a cremation today?

In the modern day a cremation of a human or pet is a hygienic and fast way to have “ashes to ashes, dust till dust”. A cremation is to cremate a human or pet in a fire combustion, vaporization and oxidation of dead bodies to basic chemical compounds, such as gases, ashes and mineral fragments retaining the appearance of dry bones in a cremation furnace. And is a alternative way for a funeral or post-funeral rite as an great green alternative to the interment of an intact dead body in a coffin, casket or shroud. Cremated remains aka “cremains” or simply, “ashes” which do not constitute a health risk, may be buried or interred in memorial sites or cemeteries, or they may be retained by relatives and dispersed in various ways. Read more about cremation on the Wikipedia cremation page.

What is a cremation furnace? A cremation furnace is also called a: “incinerator“, “cremator” and “cremation oven”. A human cremation furnace is used in a crematorium. The cremation or incineration of a dead body is carried out in a cremation furnace at a temperature ranging between 1000 to 1300 degrees Celsius. The intense heat helps reduce the body to its basic elements and dried bone fragments. The cremation process takes place in a cremation chamber, also known as a retort, of a crematory. The chamber is preheated at a set point 800 degrees Celsius and then the coffin with body is placed into the main cremation camber from the cremation furnace. This happens quickly through a mechanized charging bier to avoid heat loss. The cremation furnaces of DFW Europe are very innovative and are high-tech cremation solutions. The cremation furnaces of DFW Europe are the best a crematorium can buy, due to it’s energy efficiency and it’s cremation filtration system.

How is a body cremated in a cremation furnace?

During incineration, the body is exposed to a column of flames produced by a furnace burner that is fueled by natural gas, bio-oils, electricity or hybrid. As a corpse is placed in a casket or container (preferably made from combustible materials), the coffin burns down. Next, the heat dries the body, burns the skin and hair, contracts and chars the muscles, vaporizes the soft tissues, and calcifies the bones so that they eventually crumble. The gases released during the cremation process are discharged through an exhaust system. The bodies are always cremated one at a time. Exeptions are made with mother and child or baby twins. There is no smell because the emissions are processed thru an cremation filter system to destroy the smoke and vaporize the gases that would smell.

A cremation furnace is environmental friendly

Some crematoria have a secondary afterburner to help burn the body completely. Otherwise, the cremation technician may have to assist. It is then collected in a tray or so called ash pan and allowed to cool for some time in a ash pan refrigerator. These remains, however, also contain non-consumed metal objects such as screws, nails, hinges, and other parts of the casket or container. In addition, the mixture may contain dental remains, dental gold, surgical screws, prosthesis, implants, etc. These objects are removed with the help of strong magnets and/or forceps after manual inspection. All these metals are later disposed. Mechanical devices, pacemakers, in particular, are removed beforehand because they may explode due to the intense heat and can damage the cremation camber floor and crematory staff.

It is suggested to remove jewellery items like rings, wrist washes, and other similar objects, too, as they are likely to break down during the process. Moreover, the metal pieces are removed before the next process because they may damage the equipment used for pulverization. Finally, the dried bone fragments are further ground into a finer sand-like consistency. The machine used for this pulverization is called cremulator. On an average, it takes about one to three hours to cremate a human body, thereby reducing it to 3-7 pounds of cremains. The cremation remains are usually pasty white in colour. These remains are transferred in a cremation urn and given to the relative or representative of the deceased. If you do not have an urn, the crematorium may return the ashes in a plastic box or temporary default ash container.

How the cremation process is preformed by a professional crematorium. A cremation is preformed when all legal paperwork issued, everything is approved to carry out the cremation.

Start cremation process

The start of the cremation process is first to heat the second combustion chamber to a minimum of 820 degrees Celsius. The main combustion chamber will be heated to a 650 degrees Celsius. Before the coffin is inserted into the cremation furnace. After the coffin has been entered and the funeral coffin flames, the temperature in the combustion camber will increase during the process to approximately 1100 degrees Celsius. The cremation process is fully automated nowadays. Special cremation software has been developed to control this process. As a computer keeps tracks of what is happening in the cremation oven and can, if necessary, ensure that the right temperatures that achieve an optimal cremation process.

What is a technical cremation? A technical cremation is a normal cremation, but without ceremonial farewell. Increasingly, people want to say goodbye in their own way, at home or at once favorite location. After this the deceased is picked up for the cremation. Commonly is that the immediate next of kin may, if they wish, be present at the entering of the coffin into the cremator. The deceased with coffin is then put on a automatic charging bier and is automatically entering the cremation furnace. After closing the main door of the cremator, the cremation starts.

Growing interest for technical cremation

Last years more and more people choose for the technical cremation. Important reason is the price, which is cheaper. Of course the final costs depend on the funeral home or crematory who will lead the funeral service.

What is the delivery time of a cremation furnace? This answer depends on the requirements from the crematory. Normally spoken the delivery time of a human cremation furnace is, approximately three months. It’s all about tthe building, the available space, the question if it’s a new crematory or a replacement of the existing oven.

Delivery time cremation furnace

The process: First of all you need to buy the cremation furnace. After the period of planning and fine tuning, we will send you a quoteation. After acception we ask you to make a first deposit so that we can begin to build the cremator. Normally spoken we need a month for it’s steel construction. After this first month we need one month to lay all brickwork, as this is a job done by a specialist who knows everything about brickwork, stones and different materials. Our human cremators are the best in the world. What means that we build the heaviest available human cremator on the market these days. This 17 tons human cremator has a long life time cycle of ten years or more.

What is the difference between cold and hot start cremator? Here in Europe we know the difference between hot and cold start human cremators. A cold start cremation furnace is a cremator that start it’s first cremation of the day with a cold primary cremation chamber. For the following cremations the temperature is cooled down till 450 degrees Celsius. Before the next cremation can be done. This is because a cold start cremator could have (and is optional) a automatic charging bier. And therefore it’s to hot to insert a coffin manually. Cold start cremators are a good investment for crematories that do maximal 750 cremations per year. The environmental chamber is standard for every cremator 820 degrees Celsius.

Difference between cold and hot start cremators

The hot start cremator is one a crematory should choose when the crematorium is performing 750 cremation or more per year. This kind of cremation furnace is made for 6 cremations per day, based on a 8 hour shift. You could perform more when you have longer working hours. These hot start cremators are standard performing a cremation with as start the main cremation chamber has a 650 degrees Celsius. These hot start cremators come with a automatic charging bier. Therefore a hot insert of the coffin is possible. The maximum temperature of a human cremator lies between 1100 and 1250 degrees Celsius. Both are innovative cremators: the cold start cremator and the hot start cremator are a good investment for crematories around the world. Even the pet cremation furnace the DFW 100 is a cold start pet cremator.

When you want to buy a pet or human cremator, DFW Europe has the most innovative cremation equipment for crematoria. When you can tell us exectly what you want for your new crematory, we can offer you a fixed price . The price of a cremation furnace has several factors such as with automatic charging bier, with ash pan elevator and also important are the shipping costs.

Buy cremator

When you want to buy a DFW Europe cremator, we’ve got three options to choose from:
1] Hot start human cremator DFW 6000.
2] Cold start human cremator DFW 4000.
3] Cold start pet cremator DFW 100.

All these cremators are the best on the cremation market. These cremators all have a low energy consumption and when it comes to cremation innovations they are just miles ahead when we look to other cremators available on the market. Together with a state of the art filter system your crematory could become a green crematory. The best cremation solution would be, when green energy is used for a cremation. Could be used for other reasons or even can be stored in the ground. A lot of options to think about. When you need help just contact us for more information.

How large should the room be, to place a cremation furnace? A minimum of 65 square meters of space is needed to place a new cremation furnace with cremation filter system inside a crematorium. This is for one cremation furnace. When you want to place more furnaces next to each other then we advice to reserve some extra square meters around the cremators. This is wise to do as this is the best solution for maintaining on the cremation ovens, for a proper periodic maintenance.

How high should the room be, to place a cremation furnace? The height of a room to place a cremation furnace should have a minimum of 4,5 meters. But there a several options to place a cremator with filter system. We have several options to place a cremator in a room. The best solution for your crematory is that DFW Europe consultants give advice. They can tell you what the best cremation solution is for your crematorium.

How high should be the chimney of a crematory? The height of a crematory chimney is per country different. Take for instant The Netherlands her a crematory chimney should be at least 50 cm higher then the highest point of the crematorium. We take into account that rules and legislation can change so we use a 80 cm till 100 cm chimney.  Again the hight of a chimney can be different per country, please get in touch with your own government to know what your local legislation is. The chimney of a cremation furnace with cremation filter installation is situated behind the filter system.

How are gases filtered during a cremation? Gasses and dust are filtered by the DFW Europe cremation filtration system. To know what is stated in your local air legislation. This can be different per country, so ask your local legislator for the emission rates. But general in the most European countries we handle the lowest emission values. This makes that European crematories are the greenest in the world. And these days we can write that extra innovations are made to make it possible for crematories to become even more environmental friendly because of their energy storage or re-usage of heat that can make become electricity. That can be delivered back to the electricity grid. So that the carbon footprint of a cremation can be reduced. And a crematorium can has corporate social responsibility CSR.

Where can you visit a crematory where a DFW cremator stands? DFW Europe has got enough references from crematoria around the world. As DFW Europe is based in The Netherlands we could show you around. But in Denmark there is one crematory that is state of the art with the latest high tech and innovations. If you want to see what DFW Europe can do for your crematory. Don’t hesitate to ask us we can show you around, or just make an appointment and call the crematory you want to visit.

How does remote dialing works? When a crematory wants to insert a coffin into the cremation furnace. Then DFW Europe has the cremation remote dailing service. We dail remotely into the system and can see what the cremator does and how the automatic charging bier works. A total overview of how the cremator performs. If the automatic charging bier (AIM) has correctly inserted the coffin with the deceased and if the cremator door has closed correctly. We attend remotely the cremation process for the first 10 till 15 minutes of the cremation.

How does the cremation remote control work? You can use the cremation remote control to activate and operate the automatic charging bier. This ensures that the coffin is correctly inserted into the cremation furnace and will close the door of the cremation furnace automatically. A cremation remote control is something a crematory should consider when having more cremation furnaces in one row.

What should be taken into account when placing a cremation oven? The most important of placing a cremation furnace inside a crematory, are:

• What should be the height of the cremator room? This should be at least 4,5 meters heigh.
• What should be the width of the cremator room? This should be at least 3,5 meters wide.
• A minimum of 65 square meters is needed to place a cremation furnace plus filter installation.
• Extra into account should be taken: switch panel 400 V, 3 phase 0, 45 kW, 63 A, slow triggering fuses.
• A gas connection of 5,08 centimetres is needed.
• Also a internet connection is needed (RJ 45 outlet) from the operating / control office to the switchpanel to support the cremator.
• A water connection for a safety and sprinkler installation.