Customized experimental tube furnace daily maintenance

The daily maintenance of customized experimental tube furnaces is a key link in ensuring stable equipment performance, extending service life, and ensuring experimental safety. We provide a systematic maintenance plan from six aspects: cleaning and maintenance, electrical system inspection, mechanical component maintenance, gas system maintenance, safety protection, and record management：

1. Cleaning and maintenance
Furnace cleaning
Regular cleaning: After the experiment is completed, wait for the furnace to cool to room temperature, and use a dust-free cloth or vacuum cleaner to remove residual powder, oxides, and other impurities in the furnace to avoid contaminating subsequent experimental samples.
Stubborn stain treatment: For carbides or metal oxides attached after high-temperature sintering, a soft scraper or specialized cleaning agent (such as dilute hydrochloric acid solution, attention should be paid to corrosiveness) can be used to gently wipe them, followed by rinsing with deionized water and drying.
Sealing ring maintenance: Check whether the furnace door sealing ring (such as O-ring) is aging, deformed or damaged. If it is damaged, it should be replaced in a timely manner to prevent air leakage from affecting the vacuum degree or atmosphere control.
Furnace tube maintenance
Appearance inspection: Observe whether there are cracks, deformations, or corrosion marks on the furnace tube (made of quartz, corundum, or metal material). If any abnormalities are found, immediately stop using and replace it.
Inner wall cleaning: For detachable furnace tubes, ultrasonic cleaning machines or specialized cleaning agents can be used to remove inner wall deposits; For non removable furnace tubes, gas blowing (such as nitrogen) or vacuum adsorption can be used for cleaning.

2. Electrical system inspection
Power supply and wiring
Voltage stability: Use a multimeter to regularly check whether the input voltage is stable (within ± 10% of the rated voltage), to avoid voltage fluctuations that may damage heating elements or controllers.
Line aging: Check whether the power cord and heating element connection wire are damaged, loose, or discolored due to overheating. If there are any abnormalities, they should be replaced or tightened in a timely manner.
temperature control
Thermocouple calibration: Use a standard thermometer to calibrate the thermocouple every six months to ensure that the temperature measurement error is ≤ ± 1 ℃.
Controller parameters: Check whether the PID control parameters are reasonable, avoid temperature overshoot or oscillation, and contact the manufacturer for adjustment if necessary.
ground protection
Grounding resistance: Check the grounding resistance of the equipment annually to ensure it is ≤ 4 Ω and prevent the risk of leakage.

3. Mechanical component maintenance
drive system
Moving parts of furnace body: For tube furnaces equipped with furnace body translation or lifting functions, regularly lubricate transmission components such as guide rails and screws to ensure smooth movement.
Fastener inspection: Check whether the fixing bolts, brackets, and other fasteners of the furnace body are loose to prevent the furnace body from shifting or vibrating.
Vacuum system (if equipped)
Vacuum pump maintenance: Regularly replace the engine oil and clean the oil mist filter according to the type of pump (rotary vane pump, molecular pump, etc.) to ensure the pumping efficiency.
Vacuum gauge calibration: Calibrate the vacuum gauge annually to ensure accurate vacuum measurement.

4. Gas system maintenance
Air path sealing
Leak detection: Use soap water or helium mass spectrometer leak detector to regularly check for leaks in gas circuit connections, valves, flow meters, and other components, with a focus on checking flammable and explosive gas pipelines such as hydrogen gas.
Seal replacement: Replace the air path seal ring (such as Viton, Kalrez materials) every 1-2 years to prevent aging and leakage.
Gas purification device
Filter replacement: According to the gas purity requirements, regularly replace the adsorbents (such as molecular sieves and activated carbon) in the gas filter to ensure gas purity.
Pressure reducing valve calibration: Verify the gas pressure reducing valve annually to ensure stable output pressure.

5. Security protection
over temperature protection
Test over temperature alarm: Simulate over temperature conditions every month, test whether the over temperature alarm device is triggered, and check whether the heating power supply is automatically cut off.
Fuse replacement: Regularly check the control circuit fuse, and if it is found to be blown, identify the cause and replace it with a fuse of the same specification.
Explosion proof and fire prevention
Hydrogen safety: For tube furnaces using hydrogen, ensure that the hydrogen leak alarm device is working properly and equipped with fire extinguishers (such as dry powder fire extinguishers) and explosion-proof ventilation equipment.
Emergency stop: Post emergency stop operation procedures near the equipment to ensure that the experimenters are familiar with emergency response measures.

6. Record management
Maintenance log
Establish equipment maintenance records, recording the time, content, replaced parts, and discovered problems of each maintenance, for easy traceability and analysis of equipment status.
Maintenance Record
For fault repair, detailed records of the fault phenomenon, cause analysis, repair process, and replaced parts should be kept to provide reference for subsequent maintenance.

7. Suggested maintenance cycle
Maintenance project cycle notes
Furnace cleaning: After each experiment, avoid residual contamination of the sample.
Electrical system inspection: Every month, focus on inspecting the power supply, temperature control system, and grounding.
Mechanical component lubrication: Transmission components need to be lubricated regularly every quarter.
Gas system leak detection: Every six months, flammable gas pipelines such as hydrogen need to be inspected intensively.
Vacuum pump maintenance: Adjust maintenance content annually according to the type of pump.
Overtemperature protection test: Every month, ensure the reliability of safety devices.

8. Summary
Through systematic daily maintenance, the failure rate of customized experimental tube furnaces can be significantly reduced, equipment life can be extended, and experimental safety can be guaranteed. It is recommended that the laboratory develop a detailed maintenance plan and designate a dedicated person to be responsible for implementation and recording. For complex maintenance tasks such as vacuum system maintenance and electrical troubleshooting, it is recommended to contact professional technicians or manufacturer after-sales support to avoid equipment damage or safety accidents caused by improper operation.