After reading this article, you will understand the difference between a muffle furnace and an atmosphere furnace!

When we are choosing experimental heat treatment equipment, we always struggle with whether to use a muffle furnace or an atmosphere furnace. So, what are the differences between muffle furnaces and atmosphere furnaces? Which type of heat treatment is suitable for them? Let’s take a detailed look below!

A commonly used small 1700 ℃ experimental box furnace (click on the image to view product details)

1. Functional differences
Muffle furnace: Its main function is to provide a high-temperature environment, used for general heat treatment processes such as annealing, quenching, tempering, as well as material burning and drying. It usually does not have atmosphere control function and cannot adjust the composition of the atmosphere inside the furnace.
Atmosphere furnace: In addition to having high-temperature heating function, it can also accurately control the atmosphere environment inside the furnace. By introducing different gases such as nitrogen, hydrogen, argon, etc., specific chemical reactions can be achieved or material oxidation can be prevented. This makes the atmosphere furnace perform well in some processes that require strict atmosphere, such as metal sintering, ceramic firing, etc.

2. Structural differences
Muffle furnace: The structure is relatively simple, mainly composed of furnace, shell, furnace door, and electric control system, generally side opening type. The heating element is usually a resistance wire, which heats the material inside the furnace through the high temperature emitted by the electric heating element.
Atmosphere furnace: The structure is more complex, usually equipped with gas inlet and outlet, sealing device, and gas monitoring system to ensure the stability and safety of the atmosphere. On the basis of the original design of the muffle furnace, the atmosphere furnace adopts gas channel and vacuum system technology, and adds some components such as vacuum pumps and atmosphere controllers.

3. Application differentiation
Muffle furnace: mainly used in professional fields such as chemical production enterprises, metallurgical production enterprises, glass production enterprises, ceramic production enterprises, magnetic materials, refractory materials, crystals, electronic components, kiln manufacturing, laboratory testing units, etc. Especially box type resistance furnaces and box type high-temperature furnaces are widely used.
Atmosphere furnace: widely used in laboratories and industrial and mining enterprises of universities and research institutes, for sintering, melting, analyzing, and producing materials such as ceramics, metallurgy, electronics, glass, chemical engineering, machinery, refractory materials, new material development, special materials, building materials, metals, and non metals. Atmosphere furnaces are particularly suitable for processes that require precise control of the atmosphere, such as gas carburizing, carbonitriding, bright quenching, annealing, normalizing, etc.

4. Other differences
Temperature control: The temperature control accuracy of the muffle furnace is high, and it can achieve high temperatures. Due to the need to control the atmosphere, atmosphere furnaces require higher stability and uniformity in temperature control.
Sealing: The sealing requirements of the atmosphere furnace are higher to ensure the stability and safety of the atmosphere inside the furnace. The sealing requirements for muffle furnaces are relatively low.

Commonly used vacuum atmosphere box furnace (click on the picture to view product details)

So before choosing a muffle furnace and an atmosphere furnace, it is recommended to consult with technical personnel and communicate your needs in order to select the furnace type that is more suitable for you!Click to learn more muffle furnaces! Or Click to learn more Atmosphere Furnaces! Or click on online customer service to learn more about product information!