A reactor furnace for coating fiber tow includes an elongate reactor having a fiber tow inlet and a fiber tow outlet; a thermo-chemical reactor section positioned along the elongate reactor; a first microwave source for directing microwave energy along the reactor from a first end of the reactor toward a second end of the reactor; a second microwave source for directing microwave energy along the reactor from the second end of the reactor toward the first end of the reactor; a gas inlet upstream of the thermo-chemical reactor; and a gas outlet downstream of the thermo-chemical reactor.

A method of continuously heating a moving strip workpiece entails the steps of passing the strip workpiece in a horizontal travel direction through a tunnel furnace with a tunnel housing of oval cross section, providing the oval cross section of greater horizontal width than vertical height, and irradiating the workpiece with microwave radiation in the tunnel housing.

A method of continuously heating a moving strip workpiece entails the steps of passing the strip workpiece in a horizontal travel direction through a tunnel furnace with a tunnel housing of oval cross section, providing the oval cross section of greater horizontal width than vertical height, and irradiating the workpiece with microwave radiation in the tunnel housing.

In a heater unit for a carburizing furnace that carburizes a workpiece, a heater that heats a furnace atmosphere; and a heater supporting member that reflects radiant heat of the heater are provided, in which a heat generation part of the heater is attached to the heater supporting member, and a heat generation body composing the heat generation part is formed in a bellows shape.

In a heater unit for a carburizing furnace that carburizes a workpiece, a heater that heats a furnace atmosphere; and a heater supporting member that reflects radiant heat of the heater are provided, in which a heat generation part of the heater is attached to the heater supporting member, and a heat generation body composing the heat generation part is formed in a bellows shape.

In production of a reactive metal using a melting furnace for producing metal having a hearth, ingots can be efficiently produced by efficiently cooling the ingots extracted from the mold provided in the melting furnace. In addition, an apparatus structure in which multiple ingots can be produced with high efficiency and high quality from one hearth, is provided. A melting furnace for producing metal is provided, the furnace has a hearth for having molten metal formed by melting raw material, a mold in which the molten metal is poured, an extracting jig which is provided below the mold for extracting ingot cooled and solidified downwardly, a cooling member for cooling the ingot extracted downwardly of the mold, and an outer case for keeping the hearth, the mold, the extracting jig, and the cooling member separated from the air, wherein at least one mold and extracting jig are provided in the outer case, and the cooling member is provided between the outer case and the ingot, or between the multiple ingots.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a heating furnace that sufficiently exhibits the microwave effect produced by microwave heating and allows economical heating taking advantage of the characteristics of each heating method. The provided microwave composite heating furnace (1) is equipped with: a housing (10); a heating container (11) for accommodating and heating an object to be heated; a heating means (12) for heating the heating container (11) from the outside; a microwave irradiation device (13); a to-be-heated object supplying device (14) that supplies the object to be heated to the inside of the heating container (11); a gas introducing means (15) for introducing gas into the heating container (11); and a gas recovery means (16) for recovering the gas generated when heating the object to be heated. The heating container (11) comprises a material that has high electrical conductivity so as to reflect microwaves and confine the microwaves inside and that has high heat resistance so as not to react with the heated object, thereby confining microwaves irradiated into the heating container (11) not through the outer wall of the heating container, and allowing an improvement in electromagnetic field density.

The present invention addresses the problem of providing a heating furnace that sufficiently exhibits the microwave effect produced by microwave heating and allows economical heating taking advantage of the characteristics of each heating method. The provided microwave composite heating furnace (1) is equipped with: a housing (10); a heating container (11) for accommodating and heating an object to be heated; a heating means (12) for heating the heating container (11) from the outside; a microwave irradiation device (13); a to-be-heated object supplying device (14) that supplies the object to be heated to the inside of the heating container (11); a gas introducing means (15) for introducing gas into the heating container (11); and a gas recovery means (16) for recovering the gas generated when heating the object to be heated. The heating container (11) comprises a material that has high electrical conductivity so as to reflect microwaves and confine the microwaves inside and that has high heat resistance so as not to react with the heated object, thereby confining microwaves irradiated into the heating container (11) not through the outer wall of the heating container, and allowing an improvement in electromagnetic field density.

A sintering apparatus is provided. The sintering apparatus includes a case having an internal space formed therein and including a door provided in a front portion thereof to open and close the internal space, a magnetron coupled to the case and oscillating microwaves toward the internal space, a heat insulating unit disposed in the internal space to form a chamber space and blocking transmission of heat of the chamber space to the internal space, a susceptor unit disposed in the chamber space and having a sintering space in which a to-be-sintered material is accommodated, and a cooling unit cooling at least one of the case or the chamber space.

An electron beam melting furnace includes a hearth, a mold, an electron gun for keeping metal as a molten state, an electron beam controller for controlling direction of the electron beam, an image sensor for molten metal, and an operating device. A method for operating the furnace includes a step of inputting electron beam emitting coordinates in the electron beam controller, a step of emitting the electron beam, a step of detecting a high electron beam intensity spot by the image sensor, a step of calculating coordinates of high electron beam intensity based on the detected signal by the operating device, a step of calculating differences between the coordinates of emission and the coordinates of high electron beam intensity spot, a step of inputting the difference in the electron beam controller, and a step of controlling the location of electron beam spot.