Seven chamber furnaces from Carbolite have expanded laboratory facilities for evaluating nickel-based superalloys and coating materials at the Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery factory at Lincoln, UK
The furnaces are used for long-term thermal and atmospheric exposure of the alloy substrates and coatings used for components in hot-end sections of industrial gas turbines.
They work alongside a custom-built thermal rig with a maximum operating temperature of 1500C, also manufactured by Carbolite, which is used to subject coating materials to heating and cooling cycles.
The chamber furnaces are used to hold samples at specific temperatures between 700C and 1100C for thousands of hours, with sections being removed periodically for analysis.
They have five-litre capacity chambers and a maximum temperature of 1200C, provided by heating modules on either side of each chamber.
The modules consist of alumina-based carriers housing coiled wire elements which are graded to compensate for heat loss and optimise temperature uniformity.
Hard-wearing refractory brick is used around the entrance and in the base of the chamber, and secondary insulation reduces power consumption.
The equipment has replaced a number of existing Carbolite furnaces which had been in use at the factory for nearly 20 years.
