Vacuum heat treatment atmosphere tube furnace

Vacuum heat treatment atmosphere tube furnace is an industrial equipment that combines vacuum technology and controllable atmosphere environment, mainly used in various heat treatment industries. Let’s take a detailed look at this type of electric furnace below!

Vacuum tube furnace that can be used for annealing

1. Core functions and principles
vacuum environment
By combining mechanical pumps and molecular pumps, the pressure inside the furnace can be reduced to a high vacuum or ultra-high vacuum state of 10 ⁻ Pa or even lower. This environment effectively reduces the oxidation of materials by gases such as oxygen and water vapor, avoids impurity pollution, and improves material purity. For example, in metal heat treatment, a vacuum environment can prevent the metal from oxidizing to form oxides at high temperatures, ensuring stable material properties.

Atmosphere control
According to the process requirements, specific gases such as nitrogen, argon, and hydrogen can be introduced into the furnace to create a protective or reactive atmosphere. For example:
Nitrogen/argon: As an inert protective gas, it isolates external pollution and is suitable for processes such as metal annealing and ceramic sintering.
Hydrogen: It has reducibility and can be used for metal reduction reactions or graphitization treatment of carbon materials.
Mixed gas: such as a mixture of methane and hydrogen, which can be used for carbon material deposition experiments.

high-temperature heating
Using heating elements such as resistance wires, silicon carbon rods, or silicon molybdenum rods, electrical energy is converted into thermal energy through Joule’s law to achieve high-temperature heating. Heating elements are evenly distributed around the furnace or furnace tube, combined with reflection plates or flow guiding devices, to optimize heat radiation, conduction, and convection, making the temperature distribution inside the furnace uniform (temperature difference ≤ ± 5 ℃).

Convenient temperature control
Install high-precision temperature sensors (such as thermocouples or thermistors) at critical locations inside the furnace or furnace tube to monitor temperature in real-time. The temperature control system adopts PID control algorithm, which adjusts the heating power based on the difference between the temperature sensor feedback signal and the set target temperature, achieving precise temperature control (with an accuracy of ± 1 ℃). Support multi-stage program heating, adjustable heating rate, constant temperature time, cooling rate and other parameters to meet complex experimental requirements.

2. System composition
furnace body
Usually made of high-temperature resistant materials, such as quartz tubes, corundum tubes, or high-temperature alloy tubes, to withstand thermal stress in high-temperature environments and prevent heat loss. The furnace body is designed as a tube, which facilitates sample placement and gas flow.

heating element
According to different heating requirements, resistance wires, silicon carbon rods, or silicon molybdenum rods can be selected. The layout of heating elements should ensure temperature uniformity inside the furnace and avoid local overheating or overcooling.

vacuum system
Including vacuum pumps (such as mechanical pumps, molecular pumps), vacuum gauges, and vacuum valves. Vacuum pumps are used to extract air from the furnace and create a vacuum environment; Vacuum gauge is used to monitor the pressure inside the furnace; Vacuum valves are used to control the entry and exit of gases.

Atmosphere control system
Composed of a mass flow meter or gas flow controller, gas pipeline, and gas storage tank. Quality flow meters can conveniently control the flow rate and pressure of gases, ensuring a stable atmosphere inside the furnace. Gas pipelines need to have good sealing to prevent gas leakage.

control system
Adopting intelligent control systems, such as PLC or touch screen control, to achieve real-time monitoring and adjustment of parameters such as temperature, pressure, and gas flow rate. Support automatic recording of experimental data (such as temperature time curve, pressure time curve), and can be exported through USB or network for subsequent analysis. Some models also support remote monitoring and operation, achieving unmanned operation during the experimental process.

3. Application Fields
Metal material processing
Annealing: Eliminating internal stress in metals, improving microstructure, and enhancing plasticity.
Tempering: Adjust metal hardness and improve toughness.
Vacuum brazing: brazing is carried out in a vacuum environment to avoid oxidation and improve welding quality.

powder metallurgy
Powder sintering: Sintering metal powder into a dense body at high temperatures to increase material density and strength.
Melt infiltration: Infusing low melting point metals into high melting point metal powders to form composite materials.
Alloying: Forming alloys from different metal powders through high-temperature reactions to improve material properties.

Preparation of Ceramic Materials
Ceramic sintering: Sintering ceramic powder into a dense ceramic body at high temperatures to increase hardness and density.
Melting: Melting ceramic materials to form special shaped ceramic products.

electronics industry
Semiconductor device manufacturing, such as the manufacturing of transistors and integrated circuits, requires high-purity, non oxidizing treatment under vacuum or inert atmosphere.
Electronic component packaging: Packaging electronic components in a vacuum environment to avoid oxidation and contamination, and improve reliability.

New material research and development
High temperature synthesis: synthesizing new materials at high temperatures, such as high-temperature superconducting materials, nanomaterials, etc.
Performance characterization: Characterize the properties of new materials, such as thermal stability, oxidation resistance, etc.

aerospace
Heat treatment of high-temperature alloys: Heat treatment of high-temperature alloys used in aerospace to improve their high-temperature performance and corrosion resistance.
Titanium alloy heat treatment: Heat treatment is performed on titanium alloys to improve their microstructure and properties, meeting the requirements of extreme environmental use.

Glass manufacturing
Melting: Melting glass raw materials in a vacuum environment to avoid oxidation pollution and improve glass quality.
Opening: Processing glass products with openings, such as the manufacturing of glass tubes and bottles.

Commonly used high-temperature vacuum tube sintering furnace (click on the picture to view product details)

4. Advantages and Characteristics
high purity
The vacuum environment effectively reduces the interference of gas molecules on experiments, avoids impurity contamination, and improves product purity. For example, in semiconductor device manufacturing, high purity is the key to ensuring stable device performance.

Accurate temperature control
By using PID control algorithm and high-precision temperature sensor, temperature accuracy control (accuracy up to ± 1 ℃) is achieved to ensure consistency and repeatability of experimental conditions.

The atmosphere is controllable
It can accurately control and adjust the atmosphere composition inside the furnace to meet different experimental needs. For example, in metal reduction reactions, a hydrogen atmosphere is a key condition.

Heating evenly
Heating elements are evenly distributed around the furnace or furnace tube, combined with reflection plates or flow guiding devices, to optimize heat distribution and achieve uniform temperature inside the furnace (temperature difference ≤± 5 ℃), avoiding material performance differences caused by temperature gradients.

safe and reliable
Equipped with multiple safety protection devices such as over temperature protection, over voltage protection, leakage protection, and gas leakage alarm to ensure safety during use. The furnace body adopts a double-layer water-cooled structure, effectively reducing the temperature of the shell and preventing burns.

easy to operate
Adopting humanized design, equipped with touch screen or LCD display, the operation is intuitive and simple. Real time display of temperature, pressure, gas flow rate and other parameters, convenient for experimental monitoring and recording.

Energy-saving and environmental protection
Adopting new insulation materials and efficient heating elements to improve energy utilization efficiency, reduce energy consumption and environmental pollution.

scalability
Modular design is adopted for heating elements, temperature sensors, gas pipelines, etc., making replacement convenient and reducing maintenance costs. It can be conveniently expanded and upgraded according to actual needs.Click to learn more customized tube furnace! Or click on online customer service to learn more about product information!