Vacuum furnaces for metallurgical processing

Large scale vacuum furnaces are becoming crucial in metallurgical processes like melting, casting, heat treatment, degassing, annealing and brazing. The vacuum conditions help in reducing contamination (like oxidation) and improve the micro-structure to get favourable metallurgical properties for industrial applications. The vacuum also reduces the melting and boiling points of metals and alloys, thereby reducing the electrical power requirement in high temperature furnaces for clean metallurgical processing. The present paper describes the design criteria of vacuum metallurgical furnaces involving vacuum equipment, heating elements and process instrumentation.