Application of Vacuum Muffle Furnace in Aerospace Field
08-04-2025 Author: KJ technology
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1. Core material preparation: isolate oxidation and enhance intrinsic properties of materials
High temperature alloy sintering
Application scenario: Sintering of nickel based and cobalt based high-temperature alloys (such as single crystal turbine blade materials) should be carried out at temperatures above 1600 ℃, and oxidation should be avoided to prevent grain boundary embrittlement.
Technical advantages: The vacuum muffle furnace passes through a high vacuum environment of 10 ⁻⁴ Pa, completely isolating oxygen and preventing the oxidation and volatilization of alloy elements, resulting in a material density of over 99.5% and a 30% increase in grain boundary strength after sintering.
Preparation of Ceramic Matrix Composite Materials (CMC)
Application scenario: Silicon carbide fiber-reinforced silicon carbide ceramic matrix composites (SiC/SiC) need to be densified at high temperatures in an inert atmosphere (argon gas).
Technical advantages: The vacuum muffle furnace can be filled with high-purity argon gas (purity ≥ 99.999%), combined with a high temperature of 1800 ℃, reducing the porosity of the material from 15% to below 3%, and achieving a bending strength of 600MPa.
2. Precision heat treatment: optimizing microstructure and improving component performance
Titanium alloy vacuum annealing
Application scenario: Aircraft titanium alloy parts (such as landing gear and fasteners) need to be annealed to eliminate residual stresses from cold working and prevent surface oxidation.
Technical advantage: The vacuum muffle furnace is annealed at 800 ℃, and with a vacuum degree of 10 ⁻ Pa, the material's fatigue strength is increased by 25%, and the surface roughness is reduced from Ra3.2 μ m to Ra0.8 μ m.
Sintering of niobium alloy thrust chamber
Application scenario: The niobium alloy thrust chamber of rocket engines needs to be sintered under a vacuum of 10 ⁻⁵ Pa to avoid the reaction of niobium with oxygen to generate low melting point oxides (such as Nb ₂ O ₅, with a melting point of only 1512 ℃).
Technical advantages: The vacuum muffle furnace achieves ultra-low oxygen content (≤ 1ppm) through a molecular pump system, enabling the thrust chamber to withstand temperatures up to 2200 ℃, which is 300 ℃ higher than sintering in an air environment.
3. Extreme environment simulation testing: verifying material reliability
Aging test of thermal protection coating
Application scenario: When spacecraft re-enter the atmosphere, the thermal protection coating needs to withstand high temperatures above 2000 ℃ and oxidative gas erosion.
Technical advantage: The vacuum muffle furnace can simulate a low-pressure environment of 10 ⁻ Pa, combined with an oxygen argon mixed atmosphere (O ₂ content of 5%), and conduct a 1000 hour accelerated aging test at 1500 ℃ to quickly evaluate the coating life.
Measurement of thermal expansion coefficient of materials
Application scenario: The thermal expansion coefficient of aircraft engine blades and turbine disks needs to be matched to avoid thermal stress at high temperatures.
Technical advantage: The vacuum muffle furnace, combined with a laser interferometer, can accurately measure the thermal expansion coefficient of materials at 1000 ℃ (accuracy ± 0.1 × 10 ⁻⁶/℃), providing key data for component design.
4. Process optimization and R&D support: shorten the R&D cycle and reduce costs
Development of gradient sintering process
Application scenario: Ceramic based composite materials require staged temperature control (such as low-temperature extrusion, medium temperature densification, and high-temperature grain boundary strengthening).
Technical advantages: The vacuum muffle furnace supports more than 100 temperature rise and fall programs, and each temperature change rate can be independently set (0.1-50 ℃/min) to achieve gradient sintering process optimization.
Multi physics field coupling experiment
Application scenario: The next generation of aerospace materials needs to study the performance evolution under the coupling effect of temperature stress atmosphere.
Technical advantages: The vacuum muffle furnace can integrate mechanical loading devices to apply tensile/compressive stress (0-100MPa) in high-temperature vacuum environments, simulating the actual service conditions of materials.
