Heat Treating Furnaces

Heat Treating Furnaces

 FURNACES commonly used in heat treating are
classified in two broad categories: batch furnaces
and continuous furnaces.
 In batch furnaces, work pieces normally are
manually loaded and unloaded into and out of the
furnace chamber.
 A continuous furnace has an automatic conveying
system that provides a constant work load through
the unit.
Batch Furnaces - Construction & Types

The basic batch furnace normally consists of

1. An insulated chamber with an external reinforced steel shell,
2. A heating system for the chamber, and
3. One or more access doors to the heated chamber.
Batch Heating Furnaces

Box type Bell Type Elevator Car bottom Pit type

Type

Most commonly used when a wide variety of heat-hold-cool

temperature cycles are required.
Other types of batch furnaces: are salt bath, vacuum, and
fluidized bed furnaces.
 Batch Furnaces

 The use of batch equipment for heat treating usually requires considerable
labor for loading, handling, and unloading of the work and work trays.
 Normally used to heat treat low volumes of parts (in terms of weight per
hour).
 Also used to carburize parts that require heavy case depths and long cycle
times.
The basic box-type batch furnace can be upgraded to a semicontinuous
batch furnace with the addition of
1. Powered work-handling systems,
2. Slow-cool chambers, and
3. Some automatic controls
Batch Furnaces - Applications

 To handle machine parts for which it would be difficult to

adapt a conveying system for continuous handling.
 Process large parts in small numbers, for example, stress relief
or annealing of large weldments or castings in a car-bottom-
type furnace
 Process various parts requiring a wide range of heat-treat
cycles that can readily be changed, either manually or
automatically.
 When the work must be heated from room temperature to a
maximum temperature at controlled rates, held at temperature,
and cooled at controlled rates.
Box-Type Furnaces

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

 Car Furnace

 The car furnace, is normally considered a significantly large

batch furnace.
 The bottom (or floor) of the furnace is constructed as an
insulated movable car that is moved out of the furnace for
loading and unloading.
 Furnace cars can be self-propelled with the motor drive
mounted on the car, or they can be moved in and out by a
floor-mounted drive.
 Most car furnaces are non-atmosphere type due mainly to the
difficulty in sealing the car.
Car Furnace

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

Car bottom vacuum furnace
Heating System in Batch Furnace

 Heating systems normally are either direct fired or electrically

heated with resistance elements. With direct-fired systems, it is
advantageous to design a pressure-control system to control the
process.
 Most car furnaces are heated from room temperature with the
load already in the furnace.
 A typical cycle would be to heat from room temperature to a
control temperature at a specific rate, hold at the controlled
temperature for a specified time, and then slow cool to
discharge temperature at a specified rate.
 Heating System in Batch Furnace

 Programmable temperature-control systems with stored menu

programs are capable of performing a wide variety of heat-treat
cycles, including process monitoring and recording data.

 Car furnaces are used from the lower stress-relieving ranges around
540°C to temperatures of over 1095°C for certain applications.

 Many of the larger car furnaces are installed outdoors, increased

allowances should be made for thermal holding losses caused by
winds and other changes in ambient conditions.
Elevator-Type Furnaces

 Similar to car-bottom furnaces except that the car and hearth are rolled
into position underneath the furnace and raised into the furnace by means
of a motor-driven mechanism.
 Such furnaces are built to handle large, heavy loads and can be cooled
rapidly by a high-velocity internal or external circulating gas system.
 Elevator-type furnaces are suited for heavy work and for the precipitation -
hardening nonferrous alloys, which must be quenched rapidly to retain a
supersaturated solid solution.
 Either gas firing or electric heating is commonly used, with oil firing being
employed less frequently. The temperature range for these furnaces is
generally about 315 - 1200°C.
Elevator-Type Furnaces

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

 Bell-Type Furnaces

 Have removable retorts or covers called bells, which are

lowered over the load and hearth by crane.
 The inner retort is placed over the loaded hearth, sealed at
the bottom, and provided with a constant supply of protective
atmosphere; then the outer heating shell is lowered over the
assembly.
 One bell furnace outer heating shell can take care of several
retorts. For dense hearth loadings, a motor-driven fan for
circulating the atmosphere inside the retort provides more
rapid, uniform heating.
Bell-Type Furnaces
 Bell type Furnaces

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

 Pit Furnaces

Sometimes called pot furnaces, consist essentially of two parts:

1. The furnace, which is placed in a pit and extends to floor level
or slightly above.
2. A cover or lid, which extends upward from floor level.
 Large pit furnaces are generally installed with at least part of
their heating chambers below floor level.
 Smaller furnaces are usually mounted on the floor.
 Workpieces are suspended from fixtures, held in baskets, or
placed on bases in the furnaces.
Pit-Type Furnace
 Pit Furnaces

 Particularly suitable for heating long parts, such as tubes,

shafts, and rods suspended from a top supporting fixture or
supported from the lower end and held in a vertical position.
 Loading in this manner gives minimal warpage.
 Pit furnaces are available over a wide range of weight
capacities
 They are particularly suited to the processing of parts that
must be cooled in the furnace.
However, direct quenching is usually not feasible when large
loads and large furnaces are involved.
 Pit Furnaces
 A disadvantage of the pit-type furnace is that, if the work is to
be direct quenched, the load must be moved from the
atmosphere of the furnace into air before quenching.
 Exposure to air results in the formation of an adherent black
scale on the steel.
(For many applications must be removed by dilute mineral
acids or by grit blasting)
 To prevent scale formation threaded parts are processed in
horizontal batch furnaces and quenched under a cover of
protective atmosphere.
Pit-Type Furnace
 Continuous Heating Furnaces
Continuous furnaces consist of the same basic components as batch
furnaces:
An insulated chamber, heating system, and access doors.
In continuous furnaces, however, the furnaces operate in uninterrupted cycles
as the workpieces move through them.
Advantages
 Readily adaptable to automation and economical generally used for high-
volume work.
 Some types are equipped to provide cooling under a protective atmosphere.
 A more precise repetition of time-temperature cycles, which are a function of
the rate of travel through the various furnace zones (frequent door openings
can upset internal atmospheres though)
Continuous Heating Furnaces

Continuous Heating
Furnaces

Rotary Straight others

Hearth Chamber
 Rotary Hearth Furnace
 The common types of continuous furnaces are the pusher,
rotary hearth, roller-hearth, and continuous-belt furnaces.
 The floor of the heating chamber rotates inside a stationary
roof and walls (inner and outer), with a sand or liquid seal
between the floor and walls.
 These furnaces can be roof or side fired or electrically heated
 The operating temperature range is 300 - 1300°C.
Advantages
 The advantage of this design is that continuous motion is
obtained within a minimum of floor space. Charging and
discharging can be handled by one operator.
Rotary Hearth Furnace

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

 Rotary Hearth Furnace

Advantages
 Repeatability
 Simple to control
 Continuous production of small parts
 Easy to automate
 Low operating and maintenance cost
 Uniformity of atmospheres and temperatures
Straight - Chamber continuous furnaces

Types
 Pusher-type furnaces
 Walking-beam furnaces
 Conveyor-type furnaces that use rollers or belts
 Continuous furnaces with tumbling or inertia action of
the parts for movement
 Pusher Type Furnace
 “Tray-on-tray” concept to
move work through the
furnace
 A pusher mechanism pushes a
solid row of trays from the
charge end until a tray is pushing
properly located in position
and then at the discharge

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

end for removal.
 The trays are successively
moved through the furnace.
Cycle time through the
pusher mechanism is located outside of the
furnace is varied only by furnace and pushes a whole train of trays or
changing the push intervals. containers along the length of the furnace.
 Pusher Type Furnace
 Consists of a gastight welded shell with radiant tubes for heating. The work is
pushed through on trays with or without fixtures.
(On completion of the carburizing cycle may be quenched or cooled slowly)
 The operating temperature range is about 150 - 955°C.
 Circulating fans are used for more uniform temperature and carburization.
Advantages
 Pusher-type furnaces are quite versatile and, depending on the size and
shape of parts and on permissible distortion, parts may be loaded randomly
and free quenched in an elevator-type quench tank
 They can be designed/customised for number of trays, tray size, atmosphere
control, atmosphere recirculation, temperature-control zones, and quenching
facilities.
 Most widely used continuous furnace for gaseous carburization.
 Washing and tempering equipment is incorporated to provide a fully
automated heat-treating line.
 Skid-Rail Pusher Furnace
 In these furnaces, the work is placed on flat, cast-alloy grid trays,
which in turn, are supported through the furnace on skid rails.
 When an endothermic atmosphere (in gas carburizing) is used, the
skid rails are lubricated by the atmosphere and the friction
coefficient is reduced, decreasing wear and increasing tray and
skid-rail life.
 Skid rails are used normally for light-to-moderate tray loadings.
 Because of the higher cost of Inconel (nickel-chrome alloy), alloy
skid rails are being replaced by less expensive silicon carbide
refractory rails.
 Silicon carbide skid rails are molded and prefired into various
rectangular shapes and are then bricked in and supported on the
furnace floor.
Endothermic Gas
 “Endothermic Gas” is a common atmosphere used in many
heat-treatment furnaces for applications that require a strong
oxygen reducing atmosphere.
 The most common heat treatment applications using these
atmosphere include gas carburizing and carbonitriding.
Endothermic gas is not actually one gas but a mixture of
different gases;
 Hydrogen Gas (H2).................................... 40%
 Nitrogen Gas (N2)...................................... 40%
 Carbon Monoxide Gas (CO)............. 19.5 – 19.8%
 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) ......................... 0.2 - 0.5%
 Water Vapor (H2O) ................................ < 0.1%
 Methane (CH4)……………………….. < 0.1%
Skid-Rail Furnace
 Skid-Rail Pusher
Type Furnace

Pushing
mechanism
 Roller type

 Have almost the same design as skid rail except that roller
rails are used to support and guide the trays as they are
moved through the furnace.

 The rails are supported and anchored in a manner similar to

that of alloy skid rails, but the mechanical advantage of the
wheel and axle reduces the pushing force required to move
the load when compared to skid-type support rails.
 Roller type

 Roller-hearth furnaces move the work-piece through a heating

zone with powered, shaft-mounted rollers that contact the
work-pieces or trays.
 This type of furnace may be used in heating much longer slabs

than would be practical in a pusher-type or walking-beam

furnace.
 These furnaces are available

as single units for zone heating

or cooling in a line of furnaces.

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

Roller Type Pusher Furnace
Roller Type Pusher Furnace
 Walking Beam Furnace

 Has movable rails that lift and advance parts along stationary
rails inside the hearth. With this system, the moving rails lift the
work from the stationary rails, move it forward, and then lower
it back onto the stationary rails.
 The moving rails then return to the starting position and repeat
the process to advance the parts again.
 A typical walking-beam furnace of this design is used for
moving steel slabs. The frequency of lift and length of stroke
determine the total processing time.
 Firing is with burners mounted either in side walls or roof.
 Operating temperature range is 150 -1300°C.
 Walking-Beam Furnace

Stationary rail

Moving rail

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

Advantages
 Walking-beam systems can be built ruggedly to move heavy
loads
 Only the work being processed has to be heated because

normally trays or fixtures may not needed

 Friction is reduced for heavy loads because the work is never
skidded
 The system can be loaded or unloaded automatically

 A part can be picked from a specific spot and placed in a

specific spot by using the walking-beam mechanism

 Equipment is self-emptying on shutdown

Heat Treating Applications in hardening, tempering, annealing

and stress relieving
Disadvantages
 Moving mechanisms are usually more expensive than for
pusher-type systems
 On large high-temperature slab or billet reheat furnaces, there
is a dramatic increase in thermal holding losses and related
fuel consumption due to the water-cooled insulated walking-
beam rail system
 Walking-beam mechanisms are not commonly used where
protective atmospheres are required in the furnace chamber
due to the inherent problems in adequately "sealing" the
moving walking beams.
 Limited by the size of work piece
Conveyor-Type Furnaces
 Continuous-belt furnaces are similar to roller-hearth furnaces
except that mesh or belts are used to move the parts.
 Preferred for small parts that cannot be moved satisfactorily
directly on rollers.
 Conveyors used include woven belts of heat resistant material,
and chains, pans or trays connected to roller chains.
 The parts are fed automatically onto a mesh belt at the front
of the furnace.
 It can have atmosphere integrity in the furnace chamber.
 Belt-type furnaces generally are furnished with fans for
recirculating the atmosphere.
Continuous Belt Furnace
Salt Bath Heat Treating Furnaces

 Salt bath provide uniform, quick, efficient, economical, and

environmentally safe heat-treating.
 Used in a variety of commercial heat-treating operations
annealing, normalising, hardening, liquid carburizing, liquid
nitriding, austempering, martempering, and tempering. It is
applicable to heat treat both ferrous and nonferrous alloys.
 Parts that are heated in molten salt baths by conduction that
provides a ready source of heat.
 The core of a part rises in temperature at approximately the
same rate as its surface due to rapid heat transfer
 Heat is quickly drawn to the core from the surface, and uniform
temperature results all over the part.
 Salt Bath Furnaces

Industrial Heating: Principles, Techniques, Materials, Applications, and Design,

Yeshvant V. Deshmukh, CRC Press, 2005
 Submerged electrode Salt Bath
Furnaces
 Electrode salt bath furnaces are not self-starting because salt is solid
initially and nonconducting.
 Salt can be melted in another furnace and then charged into the salt bath
furnace with electrodes.
Industrial Heating: Principles, Techniques, Materials, Applications, and Design,
Yeshvant V. Deshmukh, CRC Press, 2005
Salt Bath Furnaces:
Advantages
 The ability of a molten salt bath to supply heat at a rapid rate
accounts for the uniform, high quality of parts.
 Heat-treating times are shortened; for example, a 25 mm dia.
bar can attain temperature equilibrium in 4 min in a salt bath,
in contrast to 20-30 min required for convection or radiation
furnaces to obtain the same temperature.
 Salt bath provide an efficient method of heat treating; about
93-97% of the electric power consumed with a covered salt
bath operation goes directly into heating of the parts.
 In atmosphere furnaces, 60% of the energy goes for heating,
and the remaining 40% leaves the furnace as waste
 Can be heated electrically or gas fired, operating
temperature can go up to 1000°C
Advantages
 Various custom designs are available for heat treating
applications such as austempering and martempering
 Because salt baths do not contain the oxygen, carbon dioxide,
and water vapor levels found in most non-vacuum (atmosphere)
furnaces, immersed parts are protected from scale formation.
 Salt bath heat treatment results in surface protection and
control of distortion.

 Surface Protection: Parts immersed in a molten salt bath

develop a thin layer or cocoon of solidified salt, eliminate the
formation of damaging oxide scales. It can be easily washed
from the surface after treatment.
Advantages
 Control of Distortion. Salt baths minimize the effects of
nonuniform heating, lack of support, and poor quenching that
may cause size and shape distortion. Parts immersed in molten
salts are supported by the density of the medium. Due to its
buoyancy, sagging or bending of the parts is minimized.
 The cocoon of frozen salt around a part can also protect the
part from rapid initial heating and the resulting thermal shock.
Later on as the temp. reaches MP of salt, this cocoon melts
again and leaves the surface of work piece.
 Decarburization of steel parts from contact with oxygen and
carbon dioxide is also eliminated.
 The temperature variations in a molten salt bath averages
±5°C throughout the bath, depending on furnace design.
Salt Bath Compositions and Safety Measures

 Salt bath’s composition consists of one or more salts, nitrates,

carbonates, cyanides, caustics, chlorides, or additives in small
amounts. The additives can be sulphates, fluorides, etc.
 Cyanides (CN) are extremely poisonous and harmful even in
small quantities. They should be used and disposed of with
great care.
 Cyanates (OCN) are less toxic and can be used in place of
Cyanides.
 Contact between moisture and molten salt can cause explosion,
whenever possible the surface of salt bath should be covered
with graphite or other covering flux.
Commercial Salt baths

Industrial Heating: Principles, Techniques, Materials, Applications, and Design, Yeshvant V. Deshmukh, CRC Press, 2005
Conductivity of Salt Baths

Industrial Heating: Principles, Techniques, Materials, Applications, and Design, Yeshvant V. Deshmukh, CRC Press, 2005
Vacuum Heat Treatment Furnaces

 Vacuum heat treating consists of thermally treating metals in

heated enclosures that are evacuated to low pressures
compatible with the specific metals and processes.
 Vacuum may be substituted for the more commonly used
protective gas atmospheres during heat treatment.
 Furnace equipment used in vacuum heat treatment differs
widely in size, shape, construction, and method of loading.
 The degree of vacuum required for most heat treating
operations is about 1/760 (~0.001) of an atmosphere.
Vacuum Heating Furnaces: Applications

 Vacuum furnaces are being used for annealing, nitriding,

carburizing, ion carburizing, heating and quenching, tempering,
brazing, sintering, diffusion bonding and stress relieving.
 Although most vacuum furnaces are batch-type installations,
continuous vacuum furnaces with multiple zones/chambers for
purging, preheating, high-temperature processing, and cooling
by gas or liquid quenching also are used.
Vacuum Furnaces: Advantages

 Prevent surface reactions, such as oxidation or decarburization,

on workpieces, thus retaining a clean surface intact
 Remove surface contaminants such as oxide films and residual
traces of lubricants resulting from fabricating operations
 Add a substance to the surface layers of the work (through
carburization, for example)
 Remove dissolved contaminating substances from metals by
means of the degassing effect of a vacuum (removal of H2 from
titanium)
 Remove O2 diffused on metal surfaces
 Join metals by brazing or diffusion bonding
Vacuum Heating Furnaces: Types

Basic types of vacuum furnace are

 Top-loading, or pit, furnaces

 Bottom-loading, or bell, furnaces

 Horizontal-loading, or box, furnaces

 Apart from this hot wall (no water cooling of the exterior walls)
and cold wall (water-cooled walls) options are available.
Vacuum Heat Treating Furnace
Vacuum Heat treating Furnace
Vacuum Heating Furnaces: Bottom Loading

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

Vacuum Heating Furnaces: Top Loading

ASM Metals handbook, vol 4 heat treating 1991

Vacuum Heating Furnaces: Advantages

 Reliability
 Repeatability
 Cleanliness
 Bright, oxide-free treatment of most metals and alloys
 Outgassing and purging of entrapped volumes of gas
 Retained surface finish
 Removal of surface volatiles
 No heat added to local environment
 No chemical effect on furnace or work during treatment
Advantages
 Easy control of furnace environment by controlling backfill gases
 Highest-quality workpiece produced
 Instant pushbutton start from cold
 Low pollution
 Wide operating temperature range in one unit
 Safe operation
 Fully automatic processing
 Wide range of programmable heating and cooling
Vacuum Heating Furnaces: Disadvantages

 A large foot print (floor space) required in relation to load size

 Lower productivity
 Longer cycle times
 Furnace must withstand atmospheric pressure and be free of
leakage
 High capital cost
 High maintenance cost