Temperature programming profiles are often carried out over multiple segments where accurate control needs to be maintained during both the black heat and radiant heat regions. The cycle will most often follow defined heating rates and dwell periods depending on the treatment process being carried out. Special control optimization routines to automatically deal with the variation in process gain for large size furnace loads and the black heat radiant boundary, can lead to improved cycle times and product quality.
Since heat treatment is a scientific process it is important to ensure that the workload follows the defined profile and special mechanisms must be employed to eliminate overshoot and to provide work piece thermocouple tolerance and compliance.
Partial Pressure may be controlled within the work chamber by adding a controlled flow of high purity inert gas. Since some materials have relatively high vapour pressures they will exhibit signs of surface evaporation at medium to high vacuum levels. The purpose of partial pressure control is to raise the pressure level of the work piece chamber to prevent this otherwise detrimental effect.
The Cooling process either, vacuum or aided cooling and Gas-Gas/Fan quenching routines are common requirements.
Most modern furnaces include highly efficient heat exchangers and rapid cooling fans to aid the cooling and quench process. Vessels are designed to operate at back fill pressures in excess of 10Bar and the sequence must provide control of this part of the cycle.
Some furnace cycles also make use of back filling with inert gas or the use of circulation fans during the heating process this is to aid heat transfer below the radiant heat range. For cellular installations optional oil quench systems may be built into the design.
A simple typical profile is shown in Figure 4.
