Vacuum radiation furnaces

Vacuum Radiation Furnaces. Vacuum furnaces are used where the work can be satisfactorily processed only in a vacuum or in a protective atmosphere. Most vacuum furnaces use molybdenum heating elements. Because all heat transfer is by radiation, metal radiation shields ate used to reduce heat transfer to the furnace casing. The casing is water-cooled and a sufficient number of radiation shields between the inner cavity and the casing reduce the heat flow to the casing to a reasonable level. These shields are substitutes for the insulating refractories used in other furnaces. 

Radiation differs from conduction and convection not only in mathematical structure but in its much higher sensitivity to temperature. It is of dominating importance in furnaces because of their temperature, and in ciyogenic insulation because of the vacuum existing between particles. The temperature at which it accounts for roughly half of the total heat loss from a surface in air depends on such factors as surface emissivity and the convection coefficient. For pipes in free convection, this is room temperature for fine wires of low emissivity it is above red heat. Gases at combustion-chamber temperatures lose more than 90 percent of their energy by radiation from the carbon dioxide, water vapor, and particulate matter. 

The outside temperature must be taken into account and above all it is necessary to avoid hot kilns, furnaces or stoves or other sources of intense radiation which generate an ambient temperature around the measurement system which lies above the specific acceptable value. Excessive ambient temperatures will result in false pressure indications in thermal conductivity vacuum sensors. 

Fig. 13. Tungsten furnace h— tungsten tube s—sight glass st—radiation shields v—vacuum bell z—power input the necessary vacuum connections to the base are not shown.

Fig. 14. High-vacuum furnace with a heating element made of tantalum plate (horizontal cross section), h— tantalum heating sleeve i— insulator s—radiation...

Pyrometry When the temperatures of interest are in a suitable range, pyrometry is the best technique for measuring the temperature of the Knudsen cell vapor sources in KEMS instruments. Some of the major advantages are that it is a noncontact technique, with the pyrometer placed outside the furnace and vacuum chamber. Also, one pyrometer can be used to measure temperature at multiple locations, which improves the consistency of calibration. The key advantage is that pyrometry, as stated in the Temperature Measurement section, is based on the Planck radiation law, which in ratio form defines ITS-90 at all temperatures above the Ag fixed point (1234.93 K).Thus,pyrometry is the standard method for realizing thermodynamic temperature through the use of Equation 48.10 ... 

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