What is the difference between a vacuum annealing furnace and a regular annealing furnace?

There are significant differences between vacuum annealing furnaces and ordinary annealing furnaces in multiple aspects, mainly reflected in the working environment, processing effect, scope of application, and equipment structure. The following is a detailed analysis of the differences between the two:
1. Working environment
Vacuum Annealing Furnace: Heating treatment of materials in a vacuum state. This environment avoids the material from reacting with oxygen in the air, thereby reducing issues such as oxidation, hardening, and deformation. Vacuum degree is an important parameter of a vacuum annealing furnace, and it is usually necessary to meet a certain vacuum degree requirement before the heating process can begin.
Ordinary annealing furnace: Working under normal pressure or slightly positive pressure environment, materials are prone to react with oxygen in the air during the heating process, leading to oxidation, decarburization and other phenomena.
2. Processing effect
Vacuum Annealing Furnace: Due to the avoidance of oxidation and decarburization issues, the surface finish of the material treated by the vacuum annealing furnace is good, without oxidation, decarburization, or carburization. At the same time, a vacuum environment also helps to remove gases and impurities from materials, improving their purity and strength.
Ordinary annealing furnace: Due to issues such as oxidation and decarburization, the surface quality of materials treated in ordinary annealing furnaces may not be as good as those treated in vacuum annealing furnaces.
3. Scope of application
Vacuum Annealing Furnace: Especially suitable for applications that require high surface quality of materials, such as annealing treatment of stainless steel products, rare metals, non-ferrous metals, and other materials. In addition, vacuum annealing furnaces are also suitable for other heat treatment processes that require avoiding material oxidation.
Ordinary annealing furnace: suitable for application scenarios that do not require high surface quality of materials, such as annealing treatment of some ordinary metal materials. However, when dealing with materials that require high surface quality, ordinary annealing furnaces may not be able to meet the requirements.
4. Equipment structure
Vacuum annealing furnace: usually includes vacuum chamber, heating device, vacuum system, temperature control system and other parts. Among them, the vacuum system is a key part of the vacuum annealing furnace, used to reduce the pressure inside the furnace to a certain degree of vacuum state. In addition, the temperature control system is also an important component of the vacuum annealing furnace, used for precise control of heating temperature and time.
Ordinary annealing furnace: usually includes furnace body, heating device, temperature control system and other parts. Compared with vacuum annealing furnaces, ordinary annealing furnaces do not have a vacuum system, so they cannot provide a vacuum environment.
In summary, there are significant differences between vacuum annealing furnaces and ordinary annealing furnaces in terms of working environment, processing effect, applicable scope, and equipment structure. Vacuum annealing furnaces play an increasingly important role in material processing and heat treatment due to their unique vacuum environment and superior processing efficiency.