PERIODIC FURNACES
Box Furnace
Thermal processing requirements that call for heating and cooling profiles which consist of multistep ramps and soaks can be best achieved in a periodic furnace with stationary load. A box furnace will allow considerable flexibility in profile control and can be designed gas-tight to enable operation with a protective atmosphere to produce bright unoxidized heat treated product.
These furnaces can accommodate load configurations or individual parts which cannot be processed in a continuous operation because of geometry, mass constraints of handling limitations.
Furnace Recirculation Assembly
The furnaces are capable of controlling at temperatures as high as 2500°F and then driven to near room temperature with convection cooling assistance. At temperatures below 1000°F it can process with precise temperature uniformity using forced recirculation of atmosphere gases. Thus it is capable of generating complex, exacting multiple step heating / cooling profiles within processing temperature limits.
Pit Furnace
Bell Furnace with Two Bases
Pit and Bell Furnaces are capable of long or short multiple cycle heat treatment but permit more productive use of the equipment. Bell and Pit furnaces are provided with heat resisting alloy retorts which form a gas-tight enclosure which will encase the product being processed.
Bell Furnace Retort
Pit Furnace Retort
The reducing protective atmosphere is admitted into the retort and either the furnace is placed over the retort, (Bell), or is inserted into the hot furnace, (Pit).
Bell Furnace Disengagement
Pit Furnace Retort Removal
At the conclusion of the processing cycle the retort is either removed from the furnace and placed in a holding area, (Pit), or the furnace is lifted off the retort and placed temporarily on a receiving base, (Bell).
Hot Bell Furnace on Receiving Base
When either of the retorts has cooled atmosphere flow can be terminated and the seal broken. The parts can be removed from the retort, (Pit), or the retort can be lifted up, over and off the stacked charge, (Bell).
While the retort is in the process of cooling the bell furnace box can be transferred from the receiving base to another loaded retort sealed to a separate base to initiate a new heat treat profile.
Cold Loaded Retort Being Dropped into Hot Pit Furnance
While the Pit Furnace retort is cooling a new loaded cold retort can be lowered into the hot pit furnace to commence another individual heat cycle.