What is the difference between a vacuum furnace and a tube furnace?

There are significant differences between vacuum furnaces and tube furnaces in multiple aspects. Let’s take a detailed look at the differences between vacuum furnaces and tube furnaces!

Commonly used vacuum furnaces (click on the image to view product details)

1. Working principle
Vacuum furnace: an industrial furnace heated by electric heating elements in a near vacuum state. It creates a low-pressure environment with almost no air by extracting a vacuum, and then generates heat through a resistance wire to process metal workpieces or materials inside the furnace.
Tube furnace: using a heater to heat the material to be treated to the desired temperature. Partial tube furnaces can be evacuated to avoid adverse reactions between materials and oxygen or other gases in the atmosphere at high temperatures; At the same time, some tubular furnaces can also be filled with specific atmospheres such as argon, nitrogen, etc. to meet different heat treatment requirements.

2. Application Fields
Vacuum furnace: mainly used for ceramic firing, vacuum smelting, degassing annealing of electric vacuum parts, as well as the preparation, processing, and modification of high-performance materials such as high-purity metal materials, semiconductor materials, and electronic ceramic materials.
Tube furnace: widely used in fields such as steel smelting, metal processing, molten salt heat treatment, glass manufacturing, etc. Meanwhile, due to its ability to accurately control temperature and processing environment, it is also commonly used in material synthesis and performance testing in scientific research and laboratories.

3. Handling environment and temperature range
Vacuum furnace: It can usually provide a high vacuum environment, with high temperature control accuracy, suitable for high-temperature heat treatment, and the highest temperature can reach a high level (the specific temperature depends on the furnace type and design).
Tube furnace: Depending on the model and configuration, different processing environments (such as vacuum, inert gas, etc.) can be provided, with a temperature range usually from low to medium, up to around 1300 ℃ (some high-temperature tube furnaces can reach higher temperatures, such as 1700 ℃ for corundum tubes).

4. Structure and Composition
Vacuum furnace: The structure is relatively complex, usually including heating chamber, vacuum pump system, atmosphere control system (if needed), electric heating elements, temperature control system, and other parts.
Tube furnace: The structure is relatively simple, usually consisting only of a heater (such as silicon carbide rod), insulation material, furnace body, temperature control system, and possible vacuum or atmosphere control system.

5. Other characteristics
Vacuum furnace: no pollution to the environment, no need for waste treatment; High temperature control accuracy; It can avoid adverse reactions between materials and oxygen or other gases in the atmosphere at high temperatures.
Tube furnace: high degree of intelligence; Small temperature difference; The surface temperature of the furnace body is low; Fast temperature rise and fall rate; Energy saving; Capable of flexibly configuring different heating zones and atmosphere environments.

Commonly used tube furnace (click on the image to view product details)

Overall, there are significant differences between vacuum furnaces and tube furnaces in terms of working principles, application areas, processing environments and temperature ranges, structures and compositions, and other characteristics. The choice of furnace type depends on specific heat treatment requirements and material properties.Click to learn more vacuum furnaces! Or click on online customer service to learn more about product information!