The goal of any sintering furnace is to provide a consistent, repeatable and economical relationship between the times that a part is in each location of the furnace, the temperature of the part as it travels through the furnace and the atmosphere seen by the part during each stage of the sintering process. The process of sintering powder-metal components within a powder-metal furnace (Fig. 1) can be summarized by four stages. The product is first brought into the preheat section of the furnace. It is here that the lubricants that have been added to the powder to facilitate the compaction step are removed. As the compact enters the high-heat section of the furnace, it is brought to the sintering temperature and the oxides on the surface of the powder particles are reduced.
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