Furnace assists with research project

The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden is using a Carbolite furnace to research debinding and sintering of ceramics as part of in-depth investigations into the application benefits of foamed ceramics.

A custom-built 35L capacity 1400°C furnace with silicon carbide heating was installed. Fraunhofer IKTS required the furnace to provide better management of toxic cyanide, isocyanate and nitrogen dioxide fumes that were produced from a previous, conventional furnace, as the polyurethane foam matrix and organic binders were burned-off.

Carbolite achieved this by mounting a secondary catalytic after-burner on top of the primary chamber furnace. The after-burner was polyisoderived from a modified variant of a Carbolite 'Grange' tube furnace. It has a central core comprising a catalytic labyrinth to ensure toxic fumes are combusted.

Samples of up to 150g of polyurethane can now be tested with processed fumes from the Carbolite furnace being fed into Fraunhofer's extractor system.