Advantages of Elnik Furnaces and Ovens

ELNIK SYSTEMS.... is committed to providing the best "ONE-STEP" debind and sinter furnaces in the MIM industry. Our focus is on making our furnaces the most flexible, easiest to use and longest lasting through user friendly computer interface, using of the best materials and exceptional engineering principles.

Examine Elnik's Furnace Features and Advantages to our Competition.....

1. FEATURE:  Our unitized frame design with removable hinged access panels, is fully assembled and contains all the components, including pumps, power supplies, heat exchangers, and blowers, in one word everything.

   ADVANTAGE:  This speeds installation, improves pump down time, uses less gas through shorter pump lines, eliminates water cooled power cables, and enhances maintenance and serviceability, to name just a few benefits.

2. FEATURE:  Our double walled water-cooled furnace chambers, manifolds, pump and gas supply lines, traps, etc. are all fabricated from 304 or 316 stainless steel.

   ADVANTAGE:  No mild steel which creates corrosion problems and rust inside the chamber walls is used anywhere except the frame.

3. FEATURE:  Our hot zones have 8 layers of molybdenum/stainless steel heat shields separated via 1/8" moly channels spaced every 6" and every seam including the corners, has an optical baffle for no heat loss.

   ADVANTAGE:  The use of thin molybdenum sheets allows the hot zone to heat up and cool down faster and also prevents cracking of the shields. Only the finest annealed and certified moly is used to provide a truly rugged and long lasting hot zone.

4. FEATURE:  Our heaters are solid Tungsten rod, 3/8" diameter for 1,650^oC ( 3,000^oF) continuous operation with heater hangers to hold up the heaters every 4 to 6".

   ADVANTAGE:  This ensures no sagging or deforming of the elements. The heaters are grouped 3 top, 3 bottom for 6 zone, fully independent, control.

5. FEATURE:  Our retorts and shelves are manufactured from annealed TZM moly. TZM moly has twice the strength of regular moly and its recrystalization temperature is higher.

   ADVANTAGE:  This ensures that the retort and shelves do not deform. The shelves have stiffeners on each side, holes for gas circulation and they slide easily in and out of the retort.

6. FEATURE:  Our retort is designed with gas plenums on each side. The evacuation ports are at the bottom, under each shelf position inside the retort. Full diameter ceramic gas supply and exhaust lines are used to eliminate breakage, warping and provide maximum flow rates.

   ADVANTAGE:  This design principle ensures that the gas moves to the middle of the retort over each shelf evenly and eliminates binder contamination on the cold walls of the furnace.  This coupled with 6 zone individual controls, 3 on top, 3 on the bottom ensures exceptional temperature uniformity for any of the gases being used.

7. FEATURE:  Our pump lines are dimensioned with the largest flow diameter and heated where needed.

   ADVANTAGE:  This ensures that all binder materials are carried easily to the traps and through the pump to the exhaust.

8. FEATURE:  Our totally dry vacuum pumps (no oil or liquid) are specially designed for our debind and sinter process, combined with a computer controlled throttle valve, create any partial pressure between 10 and 760 Torr , or laminar gas flow at 300 Torr.

Mass flow controllers meter the required gas flows through the plenum walls of the retort and directly into the hot zone. Combined with the partial pressure this will create laminar flow, the fastest and safest way to remove the binder from your parts and out of the furnace. The pumps have Teflon (non corrosive screws) with one single compression stage. All pump lines are heated to vaporize the binder, the pump runs hot so that no binder material deposits inside the pump.

ADVANTAGE:  Our pump system is designed to ensure that the furnace can run hydrogen, nitrogen, and argon at any partial pressure from 10 to 760 Torr...   No other batch furnace offers this. Partial pressure processing adds flexibility to the unit and also is known to affect the surface finish of the end product.

9. FEATURE:  Our furnaces utilize a computer and programmable logic controller interface.

   ADVANTAGE:  This serves to:

1. Write the profiles,
2. Enables the user to manually override gas flows, partial pressures, etc. during an automatic cycle for a specific segment,
3. Run a leak check,
4. Provide a telephone modem for external troubleshooting,
5. Provides an uninterruptible power supply to keep the furnace running when a power glitch occurs,
6. Servers as a data acquisition center for all the temperatures, partial pressures, current, and gas flows,
7. Monitors the consumption of all the gases and the total kilowatt used for your specific run each and every time to compare the fingerprint of your specific MIM profile,
8. At the same time it informs the user when to clean the traps, replace the thermocouples and service the pumps including oil change for diffusion and backing pump if the furnace is equipped with a high vac option.

All of this can be printed on the built in Hewlett-Packard DeskJet Printer.

10. FEATURE:  Our profile creation is the easiest and safest in the industry thru the use of an Excel Spreadsheet.

    ADVANTAGE:  This allows you to enter all the data by segment (up to 99 segments) with storage space limited by the hard drive only. You enter the segment #, ramp or soak, guaranteed flag for execution of the next segment, target set point, gas flows, partial pressure, debind, sinter, high vac, cooling cycles, type of gas, etc., to truly customize your profile parameters.

During profile creation the computer will warn of unintended errors and correct these errors before saving the program in order to download it. All of that information is downloaded to an Allen-Bradley microprocessor SLC 500 series, the most reliable and time proven in the industry. This PLC runs the entire furnace and any problems with the computer only affects the data acquisition, it will not affect the automatic cycle or all of its safety interlocks.

So go ahead and compare our furnace characteristics with any other made:

1. Unitized construction for fast pump down, less gas consumption, ease of serviceability.
2. Materials used for chamber, pump and gas lines, for heaters, hot zone and retort.
3. Allen-Bradley PLC, SLC 500 Series.
4. Circuit breakers for all circuits except heaters.
5. Design of gas
flow management thru gas plenums, mass flow controllers and a guarantee that all parts on each shelf have fresh gas supply.
6. Vacuum pump - oil free, corrosion resistant and capable of running hydrogen, nitrogen, and argon at partial pressures from 10 to 760 Torr.
7. Computer interface - Dell computer, HP DeskJet printer.
8. Profile creation via Excel spreadsheet.
9. Process trend during run.
10. Historian screen for profile fingerprint.
11. Consumption screen.
12. Maintenance and service screen.
13. Telephone modem and telephone dialer.
14. UPS for power glitches.

All of our furnaces are built to the following Standards:

• NFPA 68 - Guide for Venting of Deflagrations, 2002 Edition (for H2 operation)
• NFPA 69 - Explosion Prevention Systems, 2002 Edition (for H2 operation)
• NFPA 70 - National Electrical Code. 2002 Edition
• NFPA 79 - Electrical Standard for Industrial Machinery, 2002 Edition.
• NFPA 86 - Standards for Ovens and Furnaces, 2003 Edition.
• OSHA 19 CFR, Part 1910, Occupational Safety & Health Standard, Sub-Part S - Electrical

Conformity to the following Directives:

• CE Conformity Low Voltage Directive 73/23/EEC
• Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive 89/336/EEC
• Machinery Directive 98/37/EEC