A 22-line electric furnace has been designed and built by Carbolite to provide continuous annealing facilities for 250kg of stainless steel wire an hour at Critchley, Sharp and Tetlow Ltd, of West Yorkshire, UK. The furnace allows wire from 1.6mm to 6mm diam to be annealed through each of the 22 individual process tubes. It includes a 5700mm heated section with a maximum operating temperature of 1150 deg C, a hydrogen gas system and a 4000mm cooling section. The heated section has 90 long-life wire spiral elements cemented on to ceramic support tubes and mounted horizontally above and below the work tubes in which the wire runs. The furnace design allows the heating dements to be replaced easily but life expectation is at least two years.
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