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Powder metallurgy furnace
This front loading 2200C furnace contains a high vacuum system and gas system and is used for Powder Metallurgy and Metal Injection Molding. Pre-sintering and binder removal can be accomplished in a gas atmosphere where the retort gas outlet will remove binders or other out-gassing product without allowing them to contact the heating element and zone, while at the same time improving temperature uniformity. The actual sintering process can be accomplished in a high vacuum atmosphere or in gas to remove all contaminants from the product. For large batch production furnaces, please see our sintering furnaces product page.
Major parts: Chamber and hot zoneThe front loading furnace chamber is manufactured from stainless steel, is double-walled and water-cooled with directional baffles. The chamber houses a 12" x 12" x 12" square hot zone with mesh heating elements for a long life and excellent uniformity. A moly retort is supplied for housing the product. The chamber assembly is vacuum tight to the 10-8 Torr range and polished inside and out for vacuum integrity and an ergonomic appearance. The water-cooled door has a Viton o-ring. The chamber will have a 6.0" vacuum port located on the back side of the furnace body. This port accommodates a 6" diffusion pumping system. Nine Thermocouples are provided on the heat zone center line for uniformity and sample temperature measuring. A gas ported, rotatable sight window assembly is located at the front on the heat zone center line for optical observation or optical temperature measurement. The heat zone is made of Tungsten and Moly. The heating element is Tungsten Mesh. This element is designed to provide the best possible uniformity. The hot zone shields are made of tungsten/moly sheets. A Moly hearth plate is provided. This plate is supported with Moly pins located on the bottom cooling plate. The top and rear of the chamber will have ports to accommodate the power feed through assemblies mounted on con-flat flanges. The gas outlet port is provided in the top portion of the chamber as hydrogen will rise and thus assures the proper purge of this gas before opening the unit to air. Per NFPA Code, a 6.0" dia. blow-off port and H2 gas burn-off are supplied. The furnace mounting frame is manufactured from structural mild steel angle, welded together, primed and painted. It is capable of supporting the entire chamber and hot zone assembly, as well as the water manifolds and pumping system. This arrangement offers the end user a comfortable work area as well as space to place the load before and after the run. Back to top Power supply & controlsA three phase SCR controlled power supply is provided to supply power to the hot zone. MRF,Inc. transformers are sized with extra KVA to allow high ramp-up speeds and come with extra secondary voltage taps on the transformer to compensate for aging heating elements. The control cabinet houses all starters, contactors, circuit breakers, instruments,etc. The furnace is controlled by a Honeywell Centralized Computer Controlled System (other control packages available). The operator interface is an Industrial panel mounted personal computer. This will run Honeywell's Data Acquisition and Process Control software. The software provides animated graphical displays with process control capability, including manual (sequence) and automatic (continuous) control. This also provides all data acquisition capability, alarming functions and reports with multiple screen displays including program parameters and process status. The I/O will be handled by a Honeywell Controller (PLC) input/output system. This instrument consists of a loop and logic processor and combines powerful industrial microcomputing wih intelligent I/O. The controller also provides the analog interface between the computer and the temperature, pressure and atmosphere sensors, and related process alarms. For temperatures up to to 1100C a temperature Thermocouple Type "C" will be used. Control will automatically be switched to a two color pyrometer above this temperature. This controller will also control all digital logic required to control the solenoid valves, motor starters, interlocks, and vacuum system as well in both automatic mode or manual operation. In addition to temperature control the Honeywell system will control the vacuum system and gas system. This will provide historical data, batch history reports and allow data to be imported into standard spreadsheets. Back to top Gas and vacuum systemThis furnace system was designed to allow operation in a Process Gas (H2, Ar or N2) environment or high vacuum. The positive pressure suggested in this Furnace is 2 P.S.I.G. (0.14 BAR.) for Ar & N2. A relief valve and a compound gauge (30 P.S.I.G. x 30 in. Hg.) is located on the top portion of the furnace body. The relief valve has been factory pre-set at 2 P.S.I.G. The three solenoid gas inlet valves will be controlled through the Honeywell control system. This system has a partial pressure gas system, which will allow partial pressure operation to 10 Torr. The Gas inlet solenoid operated valves will be controlled from the Honeywell Controller and will be independently controlled. Each Gas line will have a separate metering valve and manual flow meter. The Hydrogen flow meter is designed and calibrated for Hydrogen. This unit will have a 6.0" blow-off port on the top of the chamber body. This is per the NFPA code on class "C" & "D" furnaces. The 6" diffusion vacuum pumping system will pump the furnace chamber down to the 10-6 Torr range. This pumping system consists of the following:
Back to top Water cooling systemThe water cooling system is designed to keep all external furnace parts below 120F and to provide adequate cooling so no internal parts overheat. To insure proper flow, a water flow switch will be installed to interlock the hot zone power in the event insufficient water flow is present for a period over 5 seconds. Each water circuit can be regulated with a manual ball valve to optimize water flow and minimize water use. Utilities
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