ARC MELTING

Crucible Furnace

Lab Melt Furnace Components

The furnace is designed to operate over a wide range of pressures. Typical applications are to prepare samples of reactive metals such as Ti, Zr, and Hf. Additional materials & applications can be accommodated.

  • Melt chamber with crucible
  • TIG torch with positioning drive
  • Load lock
  • Glove box
  • Vacuum pump and accessories

Water Cooled Crucible

The crucible is located at the bottom of the vacuum chamber. The crucible can be configured for multiple samples or sizes. The crucible is water-cooled and is easily removed with standard hardware.

Lab Melt Furnace Technology

The system consists of a cylindrical chamber on a stand with a stainless steel load lock and glove box on opposite sides of the chamber. The chamber includes a large viewport with an auto-darkening shield attached. The load lock allows the chamber to be pumped independently and for the system to remain isolated from the atmosphere when changing samples. The load-lock utilizes a sliding tray to allow easy loading of multiple samples.

A glove box is available for maintenance as well as for loading samples. The glove is isolated from the chamber by a gate valve. In lieu of using the glove box for changing samples, feedthrough with an articulating gripper is a configurable option. The crucible is located at the bottom of the melt chamber and is water-cooled and is easily removed with standard hardware. The drive is used for vertical electrode positioning and is controlled by the operator with thumb controls. Lateral positioning is manually controlled as the electrode assembly swivels at the top of the vacuum chamber. The current can be controlled by a foot pedal, hand dial, or preset ramp functions.

Specifications:

  • Chamber: 31” diameter by 10 ½” height, water-cooled (larger sizes are available).
  • Electrode: Operator controlled drive with a display showing electrode linear position, water-cooled.
  • Standard Crucible: 7 ½” diameter, water-cooled. Crucible may be configured for various sample sizes and shapes.
  • Power Supply: 35 kW, 500 amps at 40 V continuous service or up to 700 amps intermittent service
  • Vacuum pump: 15 cfm rotary vane type vacuum pump

Options:

  • Turbopump or Diffusion pump for low base pressure applications < 1 mtorr
  • Rotary vane pump or Dry pump with Roots blower to reach <10 mtorr (for applications requiring additional pumping capacity)
  • Feed thru with gripper to flip “buttons”
  • Feed thru with light source
  • Closed-loop water cooling – Chiller skid in the event cooling tower is not available.
  • Inert gas supply system
  • Larger / special melt chamber configurations
  • Plasma torch for high power applications

Ready to find out what we can build for you?

Let us know your project specs

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.