The photo shows the control panel of a customized furnace. It is for a customer of ours who is doing metal annealing process in Europe. Like other customized equipment, there are a lot of details to consider when it comes to the entire design of a belt furnace system. The following 6 questions are great to start with:

1) What is the application?
Some common applications are thick film firing/drying, paste drying, glass to metal sealing, solar cell processing, soldering, brazing, sintering, annealing, curing.

2) What is the product material, dimension, and weight? What carrier do you use to hold the products in the furnace?
This will help decide the belt loading capacity, chamber dimension, driving power, and how easy it can be heated or cooled.

3) What is the desired productivity?
This will help us with the design of the furnace length, belt width, and belt speed.

4) What is the time-temperature profile?
This will help design the heating zones, and cooling method (air cooling or water cooling).

5) What is the atmosphere requirement?
Common atmospheres are air, N2, Ar, H2, and O2.

6) What is the footprint limit (max length/width of the furnace)?
This will ensure that the furnace can fit inside of the facility.

The root of a perfect design lies in the good communication between designers and end users.
- Torrey Hills Tech Furnace Team