Resistor furnaces

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Fig. 1. Main types of electric furnaces (a) resistance furnace, indirect heat (resistor furnace) (b) resistance furnace, direct heat (c) arc furnace (d) induction furnace. A, charge to be heated or melted B, refractory furnace lining C, electric power supply D, resistors E, electrodes F, electric arc G,...

The most widely used and best known resistance furnaces are iadirect-heat resistance furnaces or electric resistor furnaces. They are categorized by a combination of four factors batch or continuous protective atmosphere or air atmosphere method of heat transfer and operating temperature. The primary method of heat transfer ia an electric furnace is usually a function of the operating temperature range. The three methods of heat transfer are radiation, convection, and conduction. Radiation and convection apply to all of the furnaces described. Conductive heat transfer is limited to special types of furnaces. 

Carbon and graphite resistor furnaces of different types can be operated up to about 2200-25 00°C. The sketch of a typical resistance furnace is shown in Fig. 6.1. It consists of an inner carbon furnace tube surrounded by packed granular carbon... 

Figure 7.10 Sublimation rate of graphite. Calculated Experimental. Source Adapted from Larsen HL, Graphite elements for high temperature resistor furnaces, Union Carbide Reprint Part 2, industriai...

A. G. E., Robiette, Electnc Melting Practice, John Wiley Sons, Inc., New York, 1972, 412 pp., arc, induction resistor, and special melting furnaces are discussed. 

From 760 to 960°C, circulating fans, normally without baffles, are used to improve temperature uniformity and overall heat transfer by adding some convection heat transfer. They create a directional movement of the air or atmosphere but not the positive flow past the heating elements to the work as in a convection furnace. Heating elements ate commonly chrome—nickel alloys in the forms described previously. Sheathed elements are limited to the very low end of the temperature range, whereas at the upper end silicon carbide resistors may be used. In this temperature range the selection of heating element materials, based on the combination of temperature and atmosphere, becomes critical (1). 

Chrome—nickel alloy heating elements that commonly ate used in low temperature furnaces are not suitable above the very low end of the range. Elements commonly used as resistors are either silicon carbide, carbon, or high temperature metals, eg, molybdenum and tungsten. The latter impose stringent limitations on the atmosphere that must be maintained around the heating elements to prevent rapid element failure (3), or the furnace should be designed to allow easy, periodic replacement. 

Conduction furnaces utilize a Hquid at the operating temperature to transfer the heat from the heating elements to the work being processed. Some furnaces have a pot filled with a low melting metal, eg, lead, or a salt mixture, eg, sodium chloride and potassium chloride, with a radiation-type furnace surrounding the pot. Although final heat transfer to the work is by conduction from the hot lead or salt to the work, the initial transfer of heat from the resistors to the pot is by radiation. 

There are large-scale operations using direct-heat resistance furnaces. These are mainly in melting bulk materials where the Hquid material serves as a uniform resistor. The material is contained in a cmcible of fixed dimensions which, coupled with a given resistivity of the material, fixes the total resistance within reasonable limits. The most common appHcation for this type of direct-heat electric resistance furnace is the melting of glass (qv) and arc furnaces for the melting of steel (qv). 

In a crystal-pulling procedure using a tri-arc furnace (Fig. 2), a resistor box, a d.c. power supply (300 A, 80/40 V) and a set of water-cooled power cables are used to bring power and water to the electrodes. The upper part of the furnace is equipped with three equally spaced copper cathodes, to which are fixed W-Rh electrodes. The upper part (cathode) is separated from the lower part (anode) by a transparent quartz glass tube. In the bottom of the furnace there is a tapered opening for a water-cooled copper hearth containing the boride melt. All parts of the furnace are also water... 

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