What is the difference between an atmosphere furnace and a muffle furnace?

There are significant differences between atmosphere furnaces and muffle furnaces in multiple aspects. The following will clearly introduce the differences between these two types of equipment:

Structure and Design:
Muffle furnace: mainly composed of furnace, shell, furnace door, and electrical control system, generally side opening. Mainly used for ceramic/metal sintering, high-temperature testing, etc.
Atmosphere furnace: Based on the design of the muffle furnace, gas channel and vacuum system technology have been added, as well as some components. This enables the atmosphere furnace to perform material processing in a vacuum state, or to inject protective gas for technical and professional processing such as sintering and quenching.

Applicable fields:
Muffle furnace: mainly used in professional fields such as chemical production, metallurgical production, glass production, ceramic production, magnetic materials, refractory materials, crystals, electronic components, kiln manufacturing, laboratory testing units, etc.
Atmosphere furnace: usually used in the metal processing industry, such as automotive, aviation, machinery and other industries, especially suitable for special heat treatment processes that require control of atmosphere composition.

working principle:
Muffle furnace: By converting electrical energy into thermal energy, materials can be heated at a certain temperature.
Atmosphere furnace: At a predetermined temperature, a certain composition of artificially prepared atmosphere is introduced into the furnace to achieve a certain heat treatment purpose, such as gas carburization, carbon nitrogen co carburization, bright quenching, annealing, normalizing, etc.

Heating method:
Muffle furnace: mainly uses flame heating methods, such as gas or liquefied gas, as fuel.
Atmosphere furnace: Usually, electric heating is used to convert electrical energy into thermal energy through heating elements such as resistance wires and electrodes.

Temperature range:
Muffle furnace: Generally, it can only be heated to around 1200 ℃.
Atmosphere furnace: can be heated to a higher temperature, with a maximum temperature of over 1600 ℃.

Atmosphere control:
Muffle furnace: does not particularly emphasize atmosphere control.
Atmosphere furnace: With a high degree of atmosphere control function, it can accurately control the composition and stability of the atmosphere inside the furnace to meet the needs of special heat treatment processes.

Security:
Both have considered safety factors in their design, but the atmosphere furnace has higher safety requirements due to the handling of special atmospheres, such as explosion-proof devices and leak detection systems.

In summary, there are significant differences between atmosphere furnaces and muffle furnaces in terms of structure, design, applicable fields, working principles, heating methods, temperature ranges, atmosphere control, and safety. The choice of device depends on the specific application scenario and requirements.