What is the difference between carbon tube vacuum furnace and traditional vacuum furnace?

11-25-2025       Author: KJ technology

The differences between carbon tube vacuum furnace and traditional vacuum furnace mainly lie in heating elements, maximum working temperature, heating uniformity, temperature control accuracy, energy saving, application fields, and equipment structure, as follows:

Heating element:

Carbon tube vacuum furnace: using carbon tubes (such as graphite tubes) as heating elements, utilizing the stability and high thermal conductivity of carbon materials at high temperatures to achieve heating.

Traditional vacuum furnaces often use resistance furnace wires (such as tungsten wires), high-frequency induction heating, or electron beam heating.

Maximum operating temperature:

Carbon tube vacuum furnace: The maximum working temperature can reach 2000 ℃ to 2100 ℃, or even higher, suitable for material processing in extreme high temperature environments.

Traditional vacuum furnaces: The maximum operating temperature is usually between 1300 ℃ and 1600 ℃, which is difficult to meet the demand for ultra-high temperatures.

Heating uniformity:

Carbon tube vacuum furnace: The carbon tube heating element is designed in conjunction with a circular furnace body to form a uniformly radiating thermal field with minimal temperature gradient, ensuring uniform heating of all parts of the material.

Traditional vacuum furnace: Although it can also achieve a certain degree of uniform heating, there may be local temperature differences at high temperatures, which can affect the quality of material processing.

Temperature control accuracy:

Carbon tube vacuum furnace: using PID temperature control technology, combined with high-precision thermocouples or infrared thermometers, the temperature control accuracy can reach ± 1 ℃, meeting high-precision process requirements.

Traditional vacuum furnaces: The temperature control accuracy is usually between ± 1.5 ℃ and ± 5 ℃, which is difficult to meet the requirements of ultra-high precision.

Energy efficiency:

Carbon tube vacuum furnace: Carbon tube heating element has excellent thermal conductivity, which can quickly convert electrical energy into thermal energy, reduce heat loss, and improve energy utilization efficiency. Meanwhile, modern carbon tube vacuum furnaces also use insulation walls and barriers made of high-quality insulation materials to further reduce energy consumption.

Traditional vacuum furnace: Although it also adopts insulation measures, its energy-saving effect may be slightly inferior to carbon tube vacuum furnace.

Application fields:

Carbon tube vacuum furnace: suitable for melting and heating high-quality, high-purity, refractory metals such as tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, niobium, titanium, as well as heat treatment of magnetic materials, electrical materials, high-strength steel, stainless steel, tool steel, mold steel, etc. In addition, it also supports the preparation of nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene, as well as doping processes for semiconductor materials.

Traditional vacuum furnaces: Although they can also meet the vacuum processing needs of general metal and ceramic materials, they may have limitations in handling extreme high temperatures, high precision, or special materials.

Equipment structure:

Carbon tube vacuum furnace: usually adopts a tubular design, equipped with sealing flanges and observation windows. The furnace tube material can be selected from high-temperature resistant materials such as quartz or alumina ceramics. At the same time, it is also equipped with an efficient vacuum system and temperature control system.

Traditional vacuum furnace: The structure may be more diverse, but it usually includes basic components such as furnace, electric heating equipment, sealed furnace shell, vacuum system, power supply system, and temperature control system.