Thermal Processing & Conveyor Belt Furnace Processing Parameters
Thermal Processing & Conveyor Belt Furnace
Thermal processing (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal, and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. Heat treatment involves the use of heating or chilling, normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve the desired result such as hardening or softening of a material.
A conveyor belt furnace is a device used for rapid heating of substances, using a conveyor belt to move materials through a heated chamber. Belt furnaces have a lot of applications: Thick film, Glass to Metal Seal, Brazing, Direct Bond Copper (DBC), Surface Mount, Water/Solvent Drying, Annealing, all kinds of solar cells and more.
Furnace Processing Parameters
Peak Temperature (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. Heat treatment involves the use of heating or chilling, normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve the desired result such as hardening or softening of a material.
Temperature Control/ Thermal Response Speed are two the most important parameters of a belt furnace. At this time, most electrical belt furnace are using Ceramic Heater or IR lamp to heat up the zone and using muffle to maintain the temperature inside the zones. A good furnace should have uniform temperature distribution across the belt. It should also have a rapid heating/cooling function to match products to an ideal material processing temperature profile.
Soak Time refers to the time for which the substrates with metallization printed are held at peak temperature. For many applications, there is a huge interaction between soak time and peak temperature, which will significant affect product efficiency. The soaking time depends on your product. For example, Silicon Solar Cells requires a shorter soak time but CIGS Solar Cell require a longer soak time.
Heating Zones give you a flexible temperature profile. Almost all furnace applications require temperature change during the process, so a programable belt speed and multiple heat zones design become more popular.
Atmosphere/Airflow is also an important parameter for many furnace applications like Brazing or Glass to Metal seal. The choice of gases and mixing ratio depends on the specific applications. For certain applications, the atmosphere must be neutral to ensure that no reactions can occur between the material and the atmospheric elements. In this case, a furnace should have a great atmosphere seal and should be equipt with a low ppm sampling detecting tube.
Safety is always important.
Belt furnaces have more parameters than above. If you are not sure what features you need for your application, please feel free to contact us. We have a professional team for sample testing, model selecting and advising.
Our Conveyor Belt Furnace
Hengli belt furnaces can heat up to RT~1100C/2012F, while maintaining a uniform temperature distribution across the belt (+-2C) during the process. With a built in Windows system, you can easily change/test your parameter setting, monitoring furnace states and print out the temperature profile and detect gas concentration as low as 5ppm. The IR lamp/FEC ceramic heater design can achieve an even faster thermal response. A multiple zones design helps temperature profile control and atmosphere control. Combining those features, our furnaces are highly uniform, highly efficient, energy-saving, easily adjustable.
A furnace that satisfies your needs. For many reasons, more customers tend to buy customized furnaces instead of regular models. Hengli has expertise in highly customized belt furnaces. Our team has sold belt furnaces world wide and our customized machines can meet all your requirements. No matter where you are and what you want, our team can build it for you. Since the pandemic started, we designed our machines to be almost plug-and-play (like refrigerators). We have successfully done that in Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Russia.
Warren Buffett said: 'Price is what you pay; value is what you get'. Belt furnaces, like all other industrial equipment, the price varies and quality can fluctuate. Hengli & THT are dedicated to making sure you can always get more than what you pay for (a quality product for a fair price). Our superior price and outstanding cost-efficiency make sure every penny you spend is worth it. Plus, our furnaces are built to last.