Introduction to

Furnaces
Furnace
A furnace is an equipment to melt metals for casting
or heat materials for change of shape (rolling, forging
etc.) or change of properties (heat treatment).
 Major classification of
furnaces
• Combustion furnaces. (using fuel)

• Electric furnaces
Further classification of combustion furnaces
• Oil fired.
• Coal fired.
• Gas fired.
Oil fired
• Furnace oil is the major fuel used in oil fired furnaces,
especially for reheating and heat treatment of
materials.
• The key to efficient furnace operation lies in complete
combustion of fuel with minimum excess air.
• Furnaces operate with efficiencies as low as 7% as
against upto 90% achievable in other combustion
equipment such as boiler.
Other classifications
According to mode of heat transfer
• Open fire place furnace.
It allow the work piece to come into direct contact with the hot
gases of combustion and mainly used for forging operation.
• Heated through medium.
It is further divide into two types.
• Semi muffle.
In this type the gases of combustion are deflected and do afford better control of
heat. Which results in a more uniform product.
• Full muffle.
It is used to protect the work piece from oxidation any heat treatment operation.
* Muffle is a chamber which separate the combustion chamber from work piece.
According to mode of charging
• Batch type furnace.
A batch type of furnace is used for heating work pieces in different batches.
• Forging
The forging furnace is used for preheating billets.
Forging furnaces use an open fireplace system and most of the heat is transmitted by
radiation.
The total operating cycle can be divided into heat-up time, soaking time and forging
time.
• Rerolling
The furnace is basically used for heating billets for rerolling.
The charging and discharging of the ‘material’ is done manually and the final product
is in the form of rods, strips etc.
The total cycle time can be further categorized into heat-up time and rerolling time.
• Continuous type furnace
A continuous furnace has horizontal work chamber and mechanical means of conveying
the work pieces from one end to another.
The furnace atmosphere is generally controlled.
work pieces are through the heat chamber on a conveyor chain made up of heat
resisting alloy steel.
It is used in a mass production industry.
It is further classified into different types.
Pusher Type Furnaces
Walking Hearth Furnaces
Rotary hearth furnace
Continuous Recirculating Bogie type Furnaces
Walking Beam Furnaces
According to mode of heat recovery
• Recuperative
A furnace having its incoming air heated by exhaust gases, the passage of air 
and gases through the furnace being always in the same direction.

• Regenerative
Regenerative furnaces have two chambers, each containing refractory
material, called the checker. While in one chamber the combustion gases pass
through the checker and enter the furnace in the other chamber the checker is
heated, or regenerated, with the outgoing hot exhaust gas. The furnace
operates in two cycles, where about every 20 minutes, the flow is reversed so that
the new combustion air can be heated by the checker. 
Performance Evaluation of a Typical
Furnace
Thermal efficiency of process heating equipment, such as furnaces, ovens, heaters,
and kilns is the ratio of heat delivered to a material and heat supplied to the
heating equipment.
Furnace losses
Heat storage in the furnace structure.
Losses from the furnace outside walls or structure.
Heat transported out of the furnace by the load conveyors, fixtures, trays, etc.
Radiation losses from openings, hot exposed parts, etc.
Heat carried by the cold air infiltration into the furnace.
Heat carried by the excess air used in the burners.