TWM556837U - Vacuum sintering furnace capable of continuous production - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of metal injection molding, and discloses a vacuum sintering furnace capable of continuous production, including a furnace body, a feed replacement tank and a discharge replacement tank, and the feed replacement chamber includes a first door leading to the outside and a furnace leading to the outside The second hatch of the body, the discharge replacement compartment includes a third hatch leading to the outside and a fourth hatch leading to the furnace body, the first hatch, the second hatch, the third hatch and the fourth hatch The invention can be independently opened and closed, wherein the first door and/or the second door and the third door and/or the fourth door are simultaneously closed to ensure that the internal space of the furnace body maintains a vacuum state during operation. The furnace body of the creation can be maintained in a heating and vacuum state, and the process of vacuuming, heating, heat preservation and cooling in the furnace body is frequently reduced, the production efficiency is greatly improved, and the production is more suitable for large-scale production.

Description

Vacuum sintering furnace for continuous production

The present invention relates to the field of powder metallurgy and metal/nonmetal heat treatment, and more particularly to a sintering apparatus for metal injection molding, and more particularly to a sintering furnace.

Metal Injection Molding (MIM) is a new type of powder metallurgy forming technology derived from the plastic injection molding industry. The basic process steps are: first select the metal powder and binder that meet the MIM requirements, and then At a certain temperature, the powder and the binder are mixed into a uniform feed by a suitable method, and then granulated and then injected into a mold through an injection molding machine, and the obtained preform is degreased and then sintered at a high temperature to become a final. Finished product.

At present, MIM high-temperature sintering equipment mainly includes batch type sintering furnace, and batch type sintering furnace is most commonly used as vacuum sintering furnace. Each time the vacuum sintering furnace is operated, the workpiece to be sintered is sent to the furnace body by manual or robotic loading, and each time the furnace is opened, the following processes are required: charging, closing the furnace door, vacuuming, heating and heating Insulation, cooling, opening of the furnace door and discharge, which leads to the low production capacity of the existing vacuum sintering furnace, which cannot meet the requirements of continuity and mass production.

In order to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention provides a vacuum sintering furnace capable of continuous production to solve the problem that the existing vacuum sintering furnace has low productivity and cannot meet the requirements of continuous and large-scale production.

The technical solution adopted by this creation to solve its technical problems is:

A vacuum sintering furnace capable of continuous production, comprising a furnace body, a feed replacement chamber and an discharge replacement tank, the feed replacement chamber comprising a first door leading to the outside and a second chamber leading to the furnace body a door, the discharge replacement tank includes a third hatch leading to the outside and a fourth hatch leading to the furnace body, the first hatch, the second hatch, the third hatch and the fourth hatch Independently opening and closing, wherein the first door and/or the second door and the third door and/or the fourth door are simultaneously closed to ensure the internal space of the furnace body during the working process Maintain a vacuum state.

As a further improvement of the above solution, the method further comprises feeding the material from the feed replacement tank to the first material transfer device of the furnace body.

As a further improvement of the above solution, the method further comprises: pushing the material to move the second material transfer device in the furnace body.

As a further improvement of the above solution, the method further comprises feeding the material from the furnace body to a third material transfer device of the discharge replacement tank.

As a further improvement of the above solution, the method further comprises feeding the material from the discharge replacement chamber to a fourth material transfer device.

As a further improvement of the above solution, further comprising connecting a plurality of return lines of the feed replacement chamber and the discharge replacement chamber.

As a further improvement of the above solution, the plurality of return lines include a first return line connecting one of the feed replacement chambers, a second return line connected to one of the discharge replacement chambers, and a first return line connected to the first return line One of the two return lines is the third return line.

As a further improvement of the above solution, further comprising: transporting the material from the third return line to one of the first return line fifth material transfer device, and transporting the material from the first return line to one of the feed replacement chambers The sixth material transfer device transports the material from the second return line to the seventh material transfer device of the third return line, and pushes the material to move the eighth material transfer device on the third return line.

As a further improvement of the above solution, the method further includes a plurality of carriers sequentially arranged on the plurality of return lines and movable relative to the plurality of return lines.

As a further improvement of the above solution, the furnace body is sequentially provided with a heating zone and a cooling zone along the direction of the feed replacement compartment to the discharge replacement compartment.

The beneficial effects of this creation are:

The furnace body can be maintained in a heating and vacuum state, reducing the process of frequent vacuuming, heating, heat preservation and temperature reduction inside the furnace body, which can greatly improve production efficiency and is more suitable for large-scale production.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of material transfer devices are further provided to achieve automated supply of materials.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a reflow line is further provided to achieve reflow of the plurality of carriers to further improve production efficiency.

The concept, the specific structure and the technical effects produced by the present invention will be clearly and completely described in conjunction with the embodiments and the accompanying drawings to fully understand the purpose, the scheme and the effect of the present invention. It should be noted that, in the case of no conflict, the features in the embodiments and the embodiments in the present invention can be combined with each other.

It should be noted that, unless otherwise stated, when a feature is called "fixed" or "connected" to another feature, it can be directly fixed, connected to another feature, or indirectly fixed and connected to another feature. Characteristic. In addition, the descriptions of the top, bottom, left, right, front, and back used in the present writing are merely described with respect to the mutual positional relationship of the components of the present invention in the drawings.

In addition, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art of the invention. The terms used in the description of the present invention are for the purpose of describing the specific embodiments only and are not intended to limit the present invention. The term "and/or" used in this creation includes any and all of the associated combinations.

Referring to Figure 1, there is shown a front view of a first embodiment of the present creation. As shown, a vacuum sintering furnace includes a furnace body 100, a feed replacement tank 200 and an discharge replacement tank 300, wherein the furnace body 100 serves as a main place for material sintering, and the feed replacement tank 200 and the outlet The material replacement chamber 300 is used for buffering before and after the material is fed, and the furnace 100 can be used for continuous production of the vacuum sintering furnace.

The furnace body 100 can adopt a conventional vacuum sintering furnace body structure, which is not limited in this creation. Preferably, the furnace body 100 is provided with a heating zone and a cooling zone along the direction of the feed replacement compartment 200 to the discharge replacement compartment 300, so that the material can be heated and then cooled. Further, the heating zone preferably has a plurality of different temperature intervals, and the furnace body of the cooling zone is preferably provided with a water-cooled interlayer, and the water cooling interlayer is used to achieve rapid heat dissipation.

Specifically, referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, respectively, the three-dimensional schematic diagrams of the feed replacement chamber of the present invention in different directions are shown, wherein the first hatch is in a closed state and the second hatch is in an open state. As shown, the feed replacement tank includes a tank body 210 having a first hatch 220 leading to the outside and a second hatch 230 leading to the furnace body 100. A hatch 220 and the second hatch 230 can be independently opened and closed, and after the first hatch 220 and the second hatch 230 are completely closed, a sealed space is formed in the cabin 210, and a vacuuming device is provided. A vacuum environment can be formed within the pod 210.

Preferably, the cabin 210 is further provided with an intake valve.

The door can be any of the conventional door structures. In this embodiment, a hanging door structure is preferably used. The second door 230 is taken as an example, and includes a bracket 231 fixed to the cabin 210. A vertical rail 232 is disposed on two sides of the 231. The rail 232 is slidably coupled to a door 233. The top end of the door 233 is fixed to the driving shaft of a cylinder 234. When the door 233 is moved to the lower end of the bracket 231, the door 233 is moved to the lower end of the bracket 231. The opening in the cabin 210 is blocked; when the door 233 is moved to the upper end of the bracket 231 as shown in the figure, the opening is opened, and the internal space of the cabin 210 communicates with the internal space of the furnace body 100.

The present creation preferably includes feeding material from the feed displacement chamber 200 to a first material transfer device 410 of the furnace body 100. The first material transfer device 410 in the embodiment preferably uses a push rod mechanism, as shown in FIG. 3, and includes a power device 411 fixedly connected to the cabin 210, such as a cylinder, a motor, etc., and The second door 230 is a push rod 412. The push rod 412 can be driven by the power unit 411 toward the second door 230 and can be driven by a spring 413.

Corresponding to the above-mentioned push rod mechanism, referring to FIG. 2, the inside of the cabin 210 is further provided with a slide rail, which includes a slide rail 211 facing the second hatch 230, and is directly facing the first hatch 220 Slide rail (not shown). The material is preferably placed on a carrier 700 that is movable relative to the slide rails. The travel distance of the push rods 412 should be greater than the length of the pod 210.

Referring to FIG. 1, the structure of the discharge replacement tank 300 is similar to the main structure of the feed replacement tank 200, that is, includes a tank 310 on which a third hatch 320 and a passage leading to the outside are provided. To the fourth hatch 330 of one of the furnace bodies 100. The discharge replacement tank 300 is also provided with a material transfer device, that is, a fourth material transfer device 440, with the difference that the fourth material transfer device 440 is used to feed the material from the discharge replacement tank 300.

In order to realize the movement of the material in the furnace body 100, the furnace body 100 is provided with a second material transfer device 420 for moving the material in the furnace body 100, and the material is sent from the furnace body 100 to the discharge material. The third material transfer device 430, the second material transfer device 420 and the third material transfer device 430 are similar in structure to the first material transfer device 410, and are not described herein.

The first hatch 220 and/or the second hatch 230 should be in a closed state with the third hatch 320 and/or the fourth hatch 330, ie, the first hatch 220 and the second hatch At least one of 230, at least one of the third hatch 320 and the fourth hatch 330 should be simultaneously closed to ensure that the furnace body 100 is maintained in a vacuum during operation. Specifically, in combination with FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the use method of the present creation is:

Step 1, first start the equipment, each door is closed, open a furnace vacuum pump 510 to vacuum to the set value (the furnace vacuum pump is always turned on during the operation of the equipment to maintain the set vacuum), and turn on the furnace heating device to the set temperature .

Step 2, the first hatch 220 and the second hatch 230 of the feed replacement tank 200 are in a closed state at this time, and it is checked whether the air pressure value in the cabin 210 is consistent with the ambient air pressure, and if not, the cabin is opened. The intake valve on the body 210 makes the air pressure uniform.

Step 3: When the air pressure in the cabin 210 coincides with the ambient air pressure, the first door 220 is opened (the second door 230 is kept closed at this time), and the carrier with the material placed is fed into the cabin 210.

In step 4, after the material is fed into the tank 210, the first hatch 220 is closed, and the inlet vacuum pump 520 is activated to evacuate the tank 210 to a set value.

Step 5, after the vacuum in the cabin 210 has reached the set value, check whether the second material transfer device 420 is located in the initial position, and wait for the second if the second material transfer device 420 is not located in the initial position. The material transfer device 420 completes the push action and returns to the initial position.

Step 6. When the vacuum in the cabin 210 has reached the set value and the second material transfer device 420 is located in the initial position, the second door 230 is opened (the first door 220 is kept closed). The first material transfer device 410 is activated to push the carrier in the pod 210 to the top position in the furnace body 100.

Step 7. After the carrier arrives at the cabin 210, the first material transfer device 410 is retracted, the second door 230 is closed, nitrogen is introduced into the chamber 210 or an intake valve is opened to make the chamber 210 The internal pressure is consistent with the external environment.

Step 8: Check whether the third material transfer device 430 is located in the initial bit (back limit). If not, wait for the third material transfer device 430 to complete the operation and return to the initial position; if yes, start the second material transfer. The device 420 pushes the carrier of the loading position, and the pushing distance of the second material transferring device 420 is slightly larger than the length of the single carrier, so that the sequentially arranged carriers in the furnace body can be oriented toward the discharge replacement chamber 300 as a whole. mobile.

Step 9. When the carrier at the end of the furnace body 100 is aligned with the third material transfer device 430, the second material transfer device 420 is reset; at this time, it is checked whether the replacement chamber 300 is empty, if not Empty, waiting for the discharge replacement tank 300 to be empty. If the discharge replacement chamber 300 is empty, check whether the vacuum degree reaches the set value. If the set value is not reached, start an outlet vacuum pump 530 to evacuate to the set value, such as When the discharge replacement chamber 300 is empty and has reached the set vacuum, the outlet vacuum pump 530 is closed and the fourth hatch 330 is opened (when the third hatch 320 remains closed).

Step 10: After the fourth hatch 330 is opened, the third material transfer device 430 starts pushing the carrier at the end of the furnace body 100 to the discharge replacement chamber 300.

Step 11, after the carrier reaches the discharge replacement chamber 300, the third material transfer device 430 is reset, and the fourth door 330 is closed.

Step 12: After the fourth hatch 330 is closed, the intake valve of the discharge replacement chamber 300 is opened to make the air pressure in the discharge replacement chamber 300 coincide with the ambient air pressure.

Step 13: When the air pressure in the discharge replacement tank 300 coincides with the ambient air pressure, the third hatch 320 is opened (the fourth hatch 330 remains closed), and the third hatch 320 is started after the third tank door 320 is opened. The fourth material transfer device 440 sends the carrier from the discharge replacement chamber 300.

In step 14, the third hatch 320 is closed when the carrier is delivered.

Thus, the above steps 2 to 14 can be repeated to achieve continuous sintering of the material. Since the furnace body can be maintained in a heating and vacuum state, the process of frequently vacuuming, heating, heat preservation and cooling in the furnace body can be reduced, and the production can be greatly improved. Efficiency, more suitable for large-scale production; at the same time, the vacuum sintering furnace does not need to frequently raise and lower the temperature, which can save energy and prolong the service life of the vacuum furnace; in addition, the vacuum sintering can only rely on radiation and heat conduction heat transfer, and the internal heating of the furnace body The speed is slower, and the existing vacuum sintering furnace has to increase the volume of the furnace for pursuing a larger capacity. Therefore, the temperature uniformity of the heating temperature zone in the furnace cavity is poor (the temperature difference is usually about ±10 °C), thereby affecting the sintering of the material.

Referring to Figure 4, there is shown a front view of a second embodiment of the present creation. As shown in the figure, in the embodiment, a plurality of return lines are added on the basis of the first embodiment, and the return lines are connected to the feed replacement chamber 200 and the discharge replacement chamber 300, so that the reflow of the carrier can be realized. Further improve production efficiency. Preferably, the return lines include a first return line 610 connected to the feed replacement chamber 200, a second return line 620 connected to the discharge replacement chamber 300, and a first return line 610 connected thereto. The third return line 630 is one of the two return lines 620.

In order to realize the movement of the carrier on each return line, the embodiment further provides a fifth material transfer device 450 for transporting material from the third return line 630 to the first return line 610, and the material is returned by the first return. Line 610 is transported to a sixth material transfer device 460 of the feed replacement chamber 200, and the material is transported from the second return line 620 to a seventh material transfer device 470 of the third return line 630, and the material is pushed there. An eighth material transfer device 480 is moved on the third return line 630, and the structure of the fifth material transfer device 450, the sixth material transfer device 460, the seventh material transfer device 470, and the eighth material transfer device 480 is The first material transfer device 410 is similar and will not be described herein.

This embodiment also adds a reflow step to the steps of the first embodiment, including:

In step 1, the fourth material transfer device 440 transports the carrier from the discharge replacement tank 300 to the second return line 620.

In step 2, the seventh material transfer device 470 resets the carrier after being transported by the second return line 620 to the third return line 630.

In step 3, the eighth material transfer device 480 pushes the carrier to move on the third return line 630, and moves to the set position and then resets.

In step 4, the fifth material transfer device 450 resets the carrier after being transported by the third return line 630 to the first return line 610.

In step 5, the sixth material transfer device 460 resets the carrier after being transported by the first return line 610 to the feed replacement chamber 200.

The above is a detailed description of the preferred implementation of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and those skilled in the art can make various equivalent changes or replacements without departing from the spirit of the present invention. All such changes or substitutions are intended to be included within the scope of the invention.

100‧‧‧ furnace body
200‧‧‧feed replacement chamber
210‧‧‧ cabin
211‧‧‧rails
220‧‧‧First door
230‧‧‧Second hatch
231‧‧‧ bracket
232‧‧‧rails
233‧‧‧ door leaf
234‧‧‧ cylinder
300‧‧‧Output replacement chamber
310‧‧‧ cabin
320‧‧‧ third door
330‧‧‧Fourth door
410‧‧‧First material transfer device
411‧‧‧Powerplant
412‧‧‧Put
413‧‧ ‧ spring
420‧‧‧Second material transfer device
430‧‧‧ Third material transfer device
440‧‧‧fourth material transfer device
450‧‧‧5th material transfer device
460‧‧‧ sixth material transfer device
470‧‧‧ seventh material transfer device
480‧‧‧ eighth material transfer device
510‧‧‧Burn vacuum pump
520‧‧‧Inlet vacuum pump
530‧‧‧Export vacuum pump
610‧‧‧First return line
620‧‧‧second return line
630‧‧‧ third return line
700‧‧‧ Vehicles

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of the first embodiment of the creation. Figure 2 is a perspective view of the feed replacement chamber of the present invention in one direction. Figure 3 is a perspective view of the feed replacement chamber of the present invention in another direction. Figure 4 is a front elevational view of the second embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (10)

A vacuum sintering furnace capable of continuous production, comprising: a furnace body, a feed replacement tank and an discharge replacement tank, the feed replacement tank comprising: a first hatch leading to the outside and a passage to the furnace body a second hatch comprising: a third hatch leading to the outside and a fourth hatch leading to the furnace body, the first hatch, the second hatch, the first The third hatch and the fourth hatch can be independently opened and closed, wherein the first hatch and/or the second hatch door are simultaneously closed with the third hatch door and/or the fourth hatch door to The internal space of the furnace body is maintained in a vacuum state during operation. The vacuum sintering furnace capable of achieving continuous production as described in claim 1, further comprising feeding the material from the feed replacement tank to the first material transfer device of the furnace body. The vacuum sintering furnace capable of achieving continuous production as described in claim 1, further comprising: a second material transfer device that pushes the material to move in the furnace body. The vacuum sintering furnace capable of achieving continuous production as described in claim 1, further comprising feeding the material from the furnace body to a third material transfer device of the discharge replacement tank. A vacuum sintering furnace capable of achieving continuous production as described in claim 1, further comprising discharging a material from the discharge replacement chamber to a fourth material transfer device. The vacuum sintering furnace capable of achieving continuous production according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a plurality of return lines connecting the feed replacement chamber and the discharge replacement chamber. The vacuum sintering furnace capable of achieving continuous production as described in claim 6, the plurality of return lines comprising: a first return line connecting one of the feed replacement chambers, a second return line connecting one of the discharge replacement chambers, and Connecting the first return line and one of the second return lines to the third return line. The vacuum sintering furnace capable of realizing continuous production as described in claim 7, further comprising: conveying the material from the third return line to one of the first return lines, the fifth material transfer device, and the material from the first return line Carrying to a sixth material transfer device of the feed replacement tank, transporting the material from the second return line to one of the third material transfer devices of the third return line, and pushing the material to move on the third return line The eighth material transfer device. A vacuum sintering furnace capable of achieving continuous production as described in claim 6, further comprising a plurality of carriers sequentially arranged on the return lines and movable relative to the return lines. The vacuum sintering furnace capable of achieving continuous production according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the furnace body is sequentially provided with a heating zone and a cooling along the direction of the feed replacement tank to the discharge replacement tank. Area.