Laboratory Furnaces

Compare LABORATORY FURNACES that are furnaces for heating at high temperatures in a lab environment. Lab furnace temperatures can range to over 1500 C or 2700 F. To keep the outside temperatures of these furnaces at a reasonable level, the refractory insulation has to be quite thick which increases the outside dimensions. Because of the high temperatures, the electrical energy consumed is also high. Therefore the internal dimensions and internal shapes of the furnaces are small and more closely designed to a specific function or application than laboratory ovens. Laboratory furnaces are divided into two groups

Box and Ashing Furnaces

Box and Ashing Furnaces are general application furnaces with internal dimensions ranging from 0.1 cu ft to 3 cu ft. Larger furnaces would be floor mounted and fall into the industrial class. Ashing furnaces are bench top box furnaces with a maximum temperature around 1200 C with convection air flow to remove vapors that are released in the ashing process.

Lab Tube Furnaces

The inside of tube furnaces is round and tubular in shape. The heating elements are outside the tube. This allows the use of reducing or oxidizing atmospheres. The direction of the tube may be horizontal or vertical. Some models come with more than one temperature zone

Lab tube furnaces come in two designs. One is the whole tube furnace the other has the tube split lengthwise and the furnace opens like a clam shell.

In both designs, the length of the tube and furnace structure is longer than the heated section of the tube.