Help with Vacuum Furnaces for C-C processes

[usufv]

Hi All,

I would like to know about the process invovled with designing of laboratory Vacumm Furnace for Carbon-Carbon materials. Stuff like monitoring of temperatures, pressures etc...

Yousuf

 

[gregsippel]

Hi. This is the first question I have replied to, and my reply is only two months late, but I design high temperature industrial furnaces for a living. If your question has not yet been answered, perhaps you could provide additional information, like: what size is the part you need to cook? Does your c-c part need to be high purity, or do you know what your max temperature needs to be? Depending on the max temp, a graphite furnace is likely to be appropriate for your application, which is much more expensive than a lower temp (below 1400C) furnace. I assume you are referring to a small batch furnace, not a continuous process furnace. If a batch style furnace, do you want to load the part from the top, or side, or does it matter to you? Do you want to load numerous parts (and therefore need fixturing), or one at a time? Do you have an existing oxidizer to destruct the exhaust gases, or would you need to buy or build one yourself (local environmental laws)? Do you have a source of cooling water, or a cooling tower? What is the electrical service to your plant (volts, amps, frequency)? Do you know if you want to run under continuous vacuum, or do you also want to utilize an inert atmosphere? What is part mass? Time at temp? Constraints on ramp rate? Lot of questions. Some of them I can help answer, some you (the user) must define. Or would you just want to rent the use of an existing furnace at someone else's facility (i.e. we have 5 graphite furnaces at our plant, but there are other people who rent furnace time, too).