Can a vacuum degreasing furnace process metals?

08-22-2025       Author: KJ technology

Vacuum degreasing furnace can process metals, especially widely used in degreasing treatment of metal based powder metallurgy products. Its core principle is to achieve efficient and pollution-free removal of binders in metal parts through the synergistic effect of vacuum environment and heating system, while avoiding oxidation and improving material properties. The following is an explanation from three dimensions: technical principles, application scenarios, and equipment advantages:

1. Technical principle: The synergistic effect of vacuum environment and heating system

The role of vacuum environment

Lowering boiling point: Under vacuum conditions, the boiling point of organic binders such as paraffin, PEG, and rubber significantly decreases. For example, paraffin has a boiling point of about 300 ℃ under normal pressure, but can be reduced to 120 ℃ under a vacuum degree of 10 ⁻ Pa, accelerating volatilization.

Inhibition of oxidation: Vacuum environment isolates oxygen to prevent metal parts from oxidizing at high temperatures, ensuring surface smoothness. For example, the thickness of the surface oxide layer of titanium alloy can be controlled after vacuum degreasing.

Promote degassing: A vacuum environment helps to release gases (such as hydrogen and nitrogen) inside the metal, reduce porosity defects, and improve material density.

The function of the heating system

Staged heating: Through resistance heating or graphite rod heating, achieve staged control of low-temperature binder volatilization, medium temperature residue removal, and high-temperature sintering (optional).

Uniform temperature field: Adopting multi zone heating control technology (such as 6-zone independent temperature control) to ensure temperature uniformity inside the furnace and avoid performance differences caused by local overheating or undercooling of metal parts.

Accurate temperature control: Equipped with high-precision thermocouples and intelligent temperature controllers, the temperature control accuracy meets the strict requirements of metal materials for heat treatment processes.

2. Application scenario: Covering various metal materials and products

powder metallurgy products

Metal Injection Molding (MIM) parts, such as stainless steel, titanium alloys, tungsten alloys, etc., are produced by removing binders (such as paraffin and POM) from the injection molding process using a vacuum degreasing furnace, providing a pure blank for subsequent sintering.

Extruded rods and molded products, such as hard alloys and high-density alloys, are treated with vacuum degreasing to avoid performance degradation caused by solvent residue in traditional degreasing methods.

Special metal materials

Magnetic materials, such as neodymium iron boron (Nd-Fe-B), samarium cobalt (Sm Co), etc., can be vacuum degreased to prevent oxidation of the magnetic material, remove the binder, and improve magnetic stability.

High temperature alloys, such as 718 and 713, undergo vacuum degreasing treatment to prevent element evaporation at high temperatures (such as chromium and aluminum) and ensure the surface properties of the material.

Precision Metal Parts

Metal foil and wire drawing: Vacuum degreasing can thoroughly remove surface grease, avoiding quality problems caused by grease contamination during subsequent processing.

Parts with small mesh holes: The vacuum environment ensures that the grease evaporates completely from the deep holes, avoiding residue clogging the pores.

3. Equipment advantage: Improve the performance and production efficiency of metal parts

High purity processing environment

The vacuum degree can reach 10 ⁻ Pa or even higher: effectively removing gas and impurities on the metal surface, preventing oxidation, decarburization and other phenomena during high-temperature treatment, and improving the surface quality of parts.

Inert gas protection: Optional protective atmospheres such as nitrogen and argon can be used to further isolate oxygen and suppress harmful reactions inside the metal (such as hydrogen embrittlement).

Process integration and flexibility

Integration of degreasing and sintering: Some equipment (such as vacuum degreasing sintering furnace) can achieve continuous degreasing and sintering in the same furnace, shorten the production cycle, and improve efficiency.

Adjustable process parameters: Users can adjust heating rate, insulation time, cooling method and other parameters according to the characteristics of metal materials to achieve diversified heat treatment needs.

Safety and reliability

Multiple safety protection devices: equipped with over temperature protection, over-current protection, leakage protection, vacuum anomaly protection, etc., to ensure the safety of equipment and personnel.

Chain protection mechanism: such as automatically cutting off the heating power when the furnace door is opened, to prevent safety accidents caused by misoperation.

4. Typical case: Effect of vacuum degreasing treatment on metal parts

stainless steel parts

Process parameters: Vacuum degree of 10 ⁻ ³ Pa, heating rate, insulation and degreasing at 450 ℃, insulation and sintering at 1300 ℃.

Effect: Higher part density, improved tensile strength, and lower surface oxide layer thickness.

Titanium alloy parts

Process parameters: Vacuum degree of 10 ⁻⁴ Pa, controllable heating rate, insulation and degreasing at 300 ℃, insulation and sintering at 1200 ℃.

Effect: The oxygen content of the parts is reduced, the fatigue life is improved, and the surface roughness is low.

ndfeb magnets

Process parameters: Vacuum degree of 10 ⁻ ² Pa, controllable heating rate, insulation and degreasing at 200 ℃, insulation and sintering at 1050 ℃.

Effect: The fluctuation of residual magnetism Br in the magnet is small, the coercivity is improved, and there are no oxidation spots on the surface.