Disclosed is a sintering furnace comprising a furnace body and a lifting device, wherein the furnace body comprises a furnace chamber (10) and a furnace mouth (20), the furnace chamber (10) is connected with the furnace mouth (20), wherein the sintering furnace further comprises a sealing member (30) provided at the lifting device; when the sintering furnace is in a loading or unloading condition, the sealing member (30) blocks the furnace mouth (20). When the sintering furnace is in an unloading condition, the sealing member (30) can block the furnace mouth (20), the furnace chamber (10) does not contact with the outside directly, thus the temperature in the furnace chamber (10) will not drop sharply, and the service life of the sintering furnace will be increased.

A wafer boat handling device, configured to be positioned under a process chamber of a vertical batch furnace. The wafer boat handling device comprises a main housing having a wall defining and bounding a wafer boat handling space, and a boat transporter comprising a wafer boat support for supporting a wafer boat and configured to transport the wafer boat to a cooldown position within the wafer boat handling space. A part of the wall adjacent the cooldown position is a wall part with a heat radiation surface absorptance of at least 0.60 so as to withdraw heat from the wafer boat which is in the cooldown position by means of heat radiation absorption.

A wafer boat handling device, configured to be positioned under a process chamber of a vertical batch furnace. The wafer boat handling device comprises a main housing having a wall defining and bounding a wafer boat handling space, and a boat transporter comprising a wafer boat support for supporting a wafer boat and configured to transport the wafer boat to a cooldown position within the wafer boat handling space. A part of the wall adjacent the cooldown position is a wall part with a heat radiation surface absorptance of at least 0.60 so as to withdraw heat from the wafer boat which is in the cooldown position by means of heat radiation absorption.

Disclosed is a sintering furnace comprising a furnace body and a lifting device, wherein the furnace body comprises a furnace chamber (10) and a furnace mouth (20), the furnace chamber (10) is connected with the furnace mouth (20), wherein the sintering furnace further comprises a sealing member (30) provided at the lifting device; when the sintering furnace is in a loading or unloading condition, the sealing member (30) blocks the furnace mouth (20). When the sintering furnace is in an unloading condition, the sealing member (30) can block the furnace mouth (20), the furnace chamber (10) does not contact with the outside directly, thus the temperature in the furnace chamber (10) will not drop sharply, and the service life of the sintering furnace will be increased.

Provided is a substrate processing apparatus. The substrate processing apparatus includes a chamber body having a passage, through which substrates are transferred, in one side thereof, the chamber body having opened upper and lower portions, an inner reaction tube disposed above the chamber body to provide a process space in which a process with respect to the substrates is performed, the inner reaction tube having an opened lower portion, a substrate holder disposed in the opened lower portion of the chamber to move between a stacking position at which the substrates transferred through the passage are vertically stacked and a process position at which the substrate holder ascends toward the process space to perform the process with respect to the stacked substrates, a blocking plate connected to a lower portion of the substrate holder to ascend or descend together with the substrate holder, the blocking plate closing the opened lower portion of the inner reaction tube at the process position, a connection cylinder vertically disposed on a lower portion of the blocking plate to ascend or descend together with the blocking plate, and a blocking member connected between the opened lower portion of the chamber body and the connection cylinder to isolate the opened lower portion of the chamber body from the outside.

A mobile removable hearth skid for a furnace and/or cooling chamber including: a base, the base including a top horizontal surface supporting a refractory platform which possesses a perimeter edge including a front perimeter edge, a rear perimeter edge, and at least two side perimeter edges. The rear perimeter edge and the at least two side perimeter edges form a continuous shoulder extending beyond the base perimeter edge. Also disclosed is a furnace and/or cooling chamber including a refractory lining with a continuous ledge at the bottom edges of the refractory linings mounted on the rear wall and the at least two side walls. A gap is formed by the furnace supports between a bottom surface of the ledge and a surface supporting the furnace supports. The shoulder and ledge form a removable refractory seal.

An industrial furnace (1) into which protective gas is admitted for the heat treatment of batches (5) of metal workpieces is described. The heat treating furnace includes an entrance lock (2) which can be sealed with respect to the surrounding environment by means of a first gas-tight closure device (2.2.1). The heat treating furnace also includes a third gas-tight closure device (3.1) disposed between a heat treatment chamber (3) of the furnace and a quenching facility (4) at the exit of the heat treatment chamber. With the foregoing arrangement a pressure of the protective gas admitted into the heat treatment chamber (3) can be maintained during loading and unloading of a batch of metal workpieces (5). The entrance lock may be configured as a dual-chamber vertical arrangement or as a single chamber horizontal arrangement.

A heat treatment apparatus includes a heating unit, a chamber, an exhaust unit, a partition unit and a switching unit. The heating unit supports and heats a substrate on which a film of a processing liquid is formed. The chamber surrounds the substrate supported by the heating unit. The exhaust unit is configured to discharge a gas from an inner space of the chamber through a discharge opening located near the heating unit. The partition unit is configured to partition the inner space of the chamber into a first space where the substrate on the heating unit is exposed and a second space located above the first space. The switching unit is configured to switch between a first state where the gas is discharged by the exhaust unit through the first space and a second state where the gas is discharged by the exhaust unit through the second space.