Find industrial furnaces including industrial furnace designers, vacuum furnaces, blast furnaces and more. From electric furnaces and gas furnaces to heat treating furnaces, you will find the industrial furnace you need. Use the time-saving Request for Quote tool to submit your inquiry to all the industrial furnace manufacturers and suppliers you select.
TevTech provides laboratory and industrial high temperature vacuum furnaces and components. Custom products include Sintering systems, CVD reactors, graphitization systems, graphite purification systems, crystal growers, gas distribution systems, metal or carbon hot zones & process control systems.
T-M Vacuum Products has been manufacturing industrial furnaces, deposition systems, and atmospheric enclosures for over 40 years. We produce vacuum furnaces in a range of sizes for thermal processing. With our modern 53,000 square foot facility, we can solve your heat treating needs.
Inductotherm specializes in manufacturing induction furnaces, coreless & channel-type, for melting, holding, heating & pouring virtually all metals & materials. Furnaces from coffee cup size, melting a few troy ounces of precious metals, to ones holding 100s of tons of iron. 10 kW to 42,000 kW.
Morgan Molten Metal Systems is a global manufacturer and distributor of crucibles, foundry products, and industrial furnaces. In business for over 150 years, we offer quality production and servicing of electric furnaces, gas furnaces, as well as retrofit kits to meet your specific needs.
Can-Eng Furnaces is a leading designer and manufacturer of industrial heat treating equipment. Some product lines include batch and continuous atmosphere systems, solution and basketless systems for aluminum products and a diverse range of custom thermal processing applications.
Industrial furnaces are an enclosed structure that
produces heat for industrial purposes. They are made with several kinds
of heat resistant (refractory) elements to withstand long term use. The
enclosed space holds the materials, gas or air being heated until the
desired temperature is reached. Industrial furnaces can come with varying
temperature control options or set for a single temperature, depending
on the process for which the furnace will be used. Industrial furnaces
commonly have one of the following atmospheres: air or oxidizing, inert,
reducing, salt bath and vacuum. Over temperature protections, service
or entry holes, three-zone or multi-zone, view ports, computer interface
and application software are some of the features available on these
furnaces. Heat sources can be infrared or radiant, natural gas, induction,
conduction, electrical or dielectric.
Industrial furnace designers produce furnaces that are used for various
heat treatments of materials. Heat treating adds billions of dollars
per year in value to metal products, especially steel and nonferrous
products, by imparting specific properties to the parts. These properties
are critical to the proper function of the parts. Basically, heat treating
involves three steps. The part is first heated to a specified temperature
up to 2400.25ºF. It is then held at that temperature for the required
amount of time, which may be as little as a few seconds or as much as
60 hours. Finally, the parts are cooled either in the furnace or by quenching
methods, which quickly cool the parts.
While industrial furnaces are similar to industrial
ovens,
they usually have higher temperature capacities than ovens, as well as
differing uses. Industrial furnace designers create industrial furnaces
that can be used to heat air or gas as part of a process or heating system;
ovens typically cannot. Industrial furnaces can be used to alter or simply
heat the material involved. Other uses for industrial furnaces include
ageing, annealing, atmosphere control and sterilization. It is important
to consider the temperature requirements, pressure involved and makeup
of the material when looking for industrial furnaces. The internal width,
length and height of the furnace are factors that are determined by industrial
furnace designers and the size of parts or materials to be processed.
The steel industry, among others, uses high-temperature, natural gas-fired
furnaces, which produce large amounts of nitrous oxide (NOx) per unit
of processed material. To meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations,
oscillating combustion technology has been developed and is continuing
to be improved. This technology provides efficiency, productivity and
reduced NOx emission from all types of industrial furnaces. A valve is
used to oscillate the fuel flow rate to the burner. Oscillation creates
fuel-rich and fuel-lean zones within the flame that retard the formation
of NOx, increasing heat transfer to the load. Another project is underway
to reduce NOx emissions and carefully control flame temperatures of natural-gas
furnaces with flame image sensing techniques. Flame data will be collected
with either fiber-optic detectors or spectrometers and video cameras.
The data will be used to develop control strategies for the most efficient
control of these furnaces.
Types of Industrial Furnaces
Annealing furnaces
use hydrogen to protect materials from oxidation, relieving the residual
stresses produced during the processing of steel strips, tubes and rods.
The hydrogen also has high heat transfer properties that aid in the
reduction of production cycles.
Batch furnaces
heat treat one load at a time. Batch furnaces are used in applications
in which large parts and complex alloy grades must be treated.
Belt furnaces
are continuous-type furnaces that move parts using a mesh-type or cast-link
belt.
Blast furnaces
are large towers or cylinders that have a heat resistant lining and
force gusts of hot air and gases up through the furnace load.
Car furnaces
are batch-type furnaces that are used for lower stress-relieving ranges.
Car furnaces utilize a car on rails for entering and exiting the furnace
area.
Continuous type furnaces
are heat-treating furnaces through which materials continuously enter
one door and are discharged through another.
Direct-fired tunnel-type
furnaces are continuous-type furnaces in which the parts are
conveyed through a tunnel-like heating area on hooks or fixtures, in
order to minimize distortion.
End port regenerative
furnaces, used to melt glass, have burner ports and the checkers
on the same end. While end port regenerative furnaces are initially
energy efficient, the checker volume eventually decreases through plugging,
resulting in the gradual decrease of melting efficiency over the life
of the furnace.
Heat treating furnaces
heat the material and cool it to bring it to a desired point for increased
strength, ageing or manipulation.
Induction furnaces
use combined electrical resistance and hysteresis losses to heat metal
by exposing it to the varying magnetic field around a coil-carrying
alternating current.
Pusher furnaces
are continuous-type furnaces in which parts are charged into the furnace
in containers on a periodic basis. These containers are pushed against
a line of containers that have already been heated, advancing the containers
towards the discharge end of the furnace, where they are put into use.
Rotary retort furnaces
are a type of continuous furnace that utilize an internal screw to advance
the parts, giving good control of the retention time within the heated
chamber.
Shaker-hearth furnaces
are a type of continuous furnace that advances the parts along the hearth
using a reciprocating shaker motion.
Side port regenerative
furnaces, used to melt glass, have burner ports on opposite ends
and incorporate a greater checker volume than the end port regenerative
furnace, resulting in higher pull rates.
Sintering furnaces
heat materials below their melting point to make them more dense or
compact and solid, which can lead to shrinkage.
Slot furnaces
are furnaces in which stock is charged and removed in batches through
a slot or opening.
Vacuum furnaces
are airtight and use low atmospheric pressure as the atmosphere for
heating.
Industrial Furnaces Terms
Annealing –
The processes of heating, holding temperature and cooling in order to
accomplish a specific objective with the material being heated.
Banded Structure – A structure
that can be developed from the hot rolling of steel, resulting in a layering
effect.
Bright Annealing – Annealing
done in an extremely hot atmosphere that prevents the occurrence of discoloration
and may reduce oxides.
Carburizing – Heating the surface
of steel in contact with carbon-rich solids, liquids or gases in order
to add carbon to the material.
Case Hardening – Making the
surface layer of a steel material substantially harder through heat treating.
Control Zone – The separate
sensor or instrument of a piece of thermal processing equipment which
controls its own temperature individually.
Controlled Cooling – A process
that is used to deter cracking or hardening or to achieve a desired microstructural
result. The controlled cooling process involves cooling the material from
an elevated temperature in a selected method.
Cooling Stresses – Stresses
resulting from irregular temperature distribution during cooling.
Industrial Ovens – Enclosures that are used for a wide variety of process heating
applications.
Preheating – Heating material
or products prior to a subsequent thermal or mechanical treatment.
Quenching – Quickly cooling
from a high temperature.
Racking – Placing parts on a
rack or tray prior to heat treatment in order to prevent heat-related
distortions and to keep the parts separated.
Refractory – A term describing
materials that have a very high melting point, making them ideal for linings
of furnaces and kilns.
Spalling – Surface flaking or
chipping resulting from improper heat treatment or material dissociation.
Spray Quenching – A quick cooling
process in which spray nozzles are used to spray water or other liquids
on a part.
Stabilizing Treatment – The
process of heating a part to slightly above its normal operating temperature
and then cooling it to room temperature. Stabilizing treatments are done
prior to finishing the part to final dimensions and for the purpose of
ensuring dimensional stability.
Stress Equalizing – A heat treatment
done at low temperatures in order to balance stresses in a cold-worked
part without decreasing the mechanical strength imparted to the product
through the cold-working process.
Stress Relieving – Heating and
holding the desired temperature long enough to reduce residual stresses,
then slowly cooling.
Superheating – Heating at a
temperature above the point where equilibrium phase transformation should
occur but without actually making a transformation.
Thermocouple – A device that
measures temperature through thermal electromotive force.
Transformation Temperature –
The temperature equilibrium at which a change in the phase occurs.
Water Quenching – A quick cooling
process using water as the quenching medium. Water quenching is inefficient
at the beginning, or hot, stage of the quenching process.