TAV VACUUM FURNACES – established in 1984 near Milan (Italy) in the city of Caravaggio – designs and manufactures standard and customized advanced vacuum furnaces in a wide range of geometries and dimensions that are used in the heat treatment of steels, alloys and advanced ceramic materials, as well as in hardening, tempering, solubilization, annealing, brazing and sintering operations.

Solar Manufacturing designs a wide range of furnace models and sizes. Although we are well known for our large vacuum car-bottom furnaces, we also offer the Mentor®, which is our highly successful compact, efficient and economical furnace.

Solar Atmospheres of Western Pennsylvania completed a hot-zone replacement on one of its larger horizontal car-bottom vacuum furnaces. This is the second hot-zone rebuild over 17 years of furnace operation. The furnace, which has a work zone measuring 54 inches wide x 54 inches high x 144 inches long and a load capacity of 50,000 pounds, has been in service since 2003 and is the first furnace built by our sister company, Solar Manufacturing. It has a maximum operating temperature of 2800°F (1538°C) and performs many different daily thermal cycles ranging from 500-2750°F (260-1510°C).

Many factors come into play during the vacuum sintering process, from the size and materials used in the furnace hot zone to whether debinding and sintering processes are combined in a single unit.

Vacuum sintering is one of the unsung heroes of industrial metallurgy. In this crucial process, materials are heated in a vacuum environment until they are almost at the point of melting.

Brazing furnaces today often contain a lot of very heavy fixturing materials in their brazing chambers. This “fixturing” includes all the heavy-metal structures in the furnace hot zone (e.g., grates, trays, racks, baskets, etc.).

This article will highlight advanced furnace design features, illustrating both yearly power savings and possible power-company rebates.