A Horizontal Tube furnace is mainly used to heat metals to high temperatures under vacuum or inert gas conditions. Horizontal Tube Furnaces are manufactured with the highest quality components for laboratory, commercial, and research purposes. The exterior is manufactured from stainless steel for easy maintenance and excellent durability, while the dual-layered design keeps the exterior cool at high temperatures. The inner material is fiberboard and provides excellent thermal stability. A high-temperature Horizontal Tube Furnace can be used horizontally up to 1800 °C.
Different types of heat treating methods are available on the market, but the most common methods are a kiln or a furnace. A kiln furnace hardens, burns, calcines, or dries anything. Various industries use kilns to harden objects made from clay into pottery, bricks, or tiles, but one can also use them for glassware. A kiln ensures the material is hardened enough to use for practical purposes. Electric, gas, and wood are the three most common kinds of kilns. The most important factor when selecting a kiln is its interior dimensions.
Various Types of Tube Furnaces
There are many types of tube furnaces available in various configurations. The types of Tube furnaces, according to the orientation of the tube, include Horizontal Tube furnaces and Vertical Tube furnaces. The types of tube furnaces according to the tube shape include Solid Tube Furnace and Split Tube Furnace. A Vertical Tube Furnace is designed for specific heat treatment applications in a vertical position.
Each vertical tube furnace is thoughtfully designed for long service life. A Horizontal Tube Furnace is a thermal processing furnace with a unique heating chamber. It contains a double-walled chamber that can withstand high temperatures for various applications like brazing, annealing, sintering, and tempering various parts and materials.
A Solid Tube Furnace does not open, either vertically or lengthwise. It utilizes a process tube that passes through a fixed heating cylinder, an ideal configuration for applications where batches are developed to repeat sample sizes. In a Split Tube Furnace, the work tubes and reaction vessels with ends and fittings can be easily installed and removed. The Vertical and Horizontal Split Tube Furnaces are the most versatile laboratory testing furnaces and offer the best value for mechanical testing at different temperatures with slow to rapid heat-up rates.
Standard Features of a Horizontal Tube Furnace
Horizontal tube furnaces are used in applications where a product or sample is small and needs to be processed in oxygen or an inert atmosphere. The key features of a Horizontal Tube Furnace include maximum operating temperature, programmable temperature controller with 24 segments, over-temperature protection, low thermal mass ceramic fiber insulation, rectangular housing with holes for convection cooling, available with 1 – 3 heating zones, compact and lightweight, top plug provides access to furnace interior; tube maintains sample integrity and furnace interior, the gas delivery system controls gas mixtures and flow rates, available in lengths up to 305mm, but can accommodate tubes up to 75mm, up to 4 independently operated quartz tubes providing redundancy/high uptime, etc.
Factors to consider before buying a kiln
A kiln furnace hardens, burns, calcines, or dries anything. Kilns have different abilities to hold heat. Therefore always check how much insulation the kilns have. Today the new kilns models have almost three and a half inches; therefore, they are much more energy efficient with their added insulation. Apart from wall insulation, floors, ceilings, lids, and door insulation must also be excellent. Next, consider the kiln’s exterior dimensions and its clearance space. Commercially built kilns come with clearance space under the floor of the kiln.
The kiln you select must be rated hot enough for the ware you will fire. Generally, the higher the kiln’s maximum temperature rating, the longer the elements last. Decide whether you want to buy round or square kilns. On a per-cubic-foot basis, the “round” kilns are less expensive than the square because they are easier to build. One must also prefer automatic models as automatic kilns are easier to use than manual kilns.Â
