Laboratory Vaccum Furnaces

You are looking for a vacuum furnace for laboratory use ?

Our vacuum furnaces incorporate the key features of Facerom’s standard models, tailored specifically to meet the diverse requirements of laboratory experiments. They support high-value applications while maintaining a compact footprint, making them especially suited for laboratory, university, and R&D environments.

A lab vacuum furnace is designed to enclose the material being treated within a vacuum environment, which eliminates oxidation, reduces heat loss from convection, and prevents contamination. It can heat metals, ceramics, and other materials to temperatures up to 3,000 °C depending on the furnace design and materials used. The achievable vacuum level and maximum temperature are determined by the melting points and vapor pressures of the processed materials. Vacuum furnaces are commonly employed for annealing, brazing, sintering, and heat treatment applications. These systems often feature computer control to ensure process consistency, producing results with minimal contamination and high purity.

We provide superior vacuum furnace solutions tailored to your specific needs. Our custom-designed vacuum furnaces accommodate a wide variety of customer specifications, offering diverse shapes, sizes, multiple hot zone configurations, and both manual and automatic flow control options. With an extensive selection of standard models, we can confidently meet your requirements. Our vacuum furnaces operate at pressures as low as 10^-11 Torr (mBar), covering a temperature range from ambient up to 3000 °C (5432°F) for tungsten hot zones, and up to 2200 °C (3992°F) for graphite hot zones within a rough vacuum level of 10^-2 Torr (mBar).

Advantages of Vacuum Furnace

• Delivers consistent high temperatures and accurate temperature regulation to ensure the production of materials with uniform quality and reliable properties.
• Enables heating of metals to elevated temperatures while minimizing contamination risks by eliminating oxygen presence.
• Rapid quenching or cooling of the product is achievable to reduce process cycle durations.
• Minimal contamination from carbon, oxygen, and other gases is ensured by the vacuum environment.
• Capable of heating certain materials to temperatures reaching up to 3,000 °C (5,432 °F).
• Equipped with computer control to guarantee consistent performance and reliable quality outcomes.
• Vacuum pumping systems eliminate low-temperature by-products from materials during heating, leading to a final product of enhanced purity.
• Commercial vacuum pumping systems are capable of achieving vacuum levels down to 1×10⁻¹¹ torr (1.3×10⁻¹¹ mbar; 1.3×10⁻¹⁴ atm).
• Usually constructed from refractory materials like graphite or ceramic, designed to endure high temperatures and vacuum conditions.
• Used for a wide range of industrial processes, such as heat treatment, sintering, brazing, and annealing.

Applications of Lab Vacuum Furnace

• Annealing
• Tempering
• Sintering
• Brazing
• Quenching
• Hardening
• Heat treatment
• Nitriding
• Aging
• Carburizing

Laboratory Vacuum Furnaces - Frequently Asked Questions

What is a vacuum furnace?

A laboratory vacuum furnace facilitates heat treatment under vacuum conditions. There are two main types: cold wall and hot wall vacuum furnaces. Cold wall vacuum furnaces feature a water-cooled vacuum chamber that remains cool throughout the heat treatment, with heating elements positioned inside this chamber.

Which applications require a vacuum furnace?

Vacuum heat treatment is necessary for various processes such as vacuum soldering, brazing, annealing, and sintering. Typically, a vacuum furnace is essential for heat treatments performed in a controlled, predominantly non-oxidizing atmosphere. Furthermore, employing a vacuum furnace can be beneficial when conducting heat treatment with a specific oxygen concentration that differs from normal air, such as pure oxygen (100% O2).

Why is a vacuum furnace required for high temperatures?

The maximum temperature achievable with standard resistance heating elements in an air or oxidizing environment is 1800°C. For higher temperatures, a vacuum furnace with a non-oxidizing atmosphere is required. Vacuum furnaces equipped with resistance heating elements can reach temperatures up to 3000°C.

What types of heating elements are used in a vacuum furnace?

Commonly, graphite, molybdenum, or tungsten heating elements are utilized in a cold wall vacuum furnace. These materials maintain low vapor pressures at elevated temperatures, enabling vacuum furnaces to reach temperatures of approximately 2200°C, 1600°C, and 2200°C respectively.

What type of atmosphere is possible in a vacuum furnace?

Vacuum is naturally a viable atmosphere for vacuum furnaces, with vacuum levels ranging from rough and fine to high and ultra-high depending on the application. Since vacuum furnaces enable the complete evacuation of air, they can also operate using various gases or gas mixtures such as argon, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, helium, and others.