During the use of a vacuum furnace, emergencies may inevitably occur. Operators should remain calm and take appropriate emergency measures to prevent major accidents.
How to respond when a vacuum furnace encounters an emergency:
1. Sudden Power Outage in the Heating Chamber
- Immediately turn off the main power supply of the equipment.
- Close all vacuum valves in the pipelines to prevent air from entering the furnace.
- Introduce high-purity nitrogen gas into the heating chamber to reach 6.6×10⁻⁴ Pa, so the furnace cools down quickly. At the same time, ventilate the cooling chamber to pressurize the thermal gate valve.
- If cooling is water-circulated and water supply stops, activate the backup water source (tap water or elevated water tank).
2. Sudden Water Loss During Heating
- Immediately cut off the heating power.
- Switch to backup water supply.
- Transfer the workpiece from the heating chamber to the cooling chamber and use nitrogen gas to cool it quickly.
- Introduce high-purity nitrogen into the heating chamber to rapidly cool it below 150°C.
3. Sudden Air Leak During Heating
- Immediately seal the leaking area with vacuum sealing clay.
- Cut off the heating power immediately.
- Fill the heating chamber with high-purity nitrogen to bring the furnace pressure close to atmospheric pressure, reducing air infiltration.
4. Operation During Water Interruption
- For short-term water loss or low water pressure, the system will alarm with lights and sound, but operation can continue normally.
- If water loss or low pressure is expected to last over 20 minutes, immediately stop heating. Resume heating only after water pressure returns to normal. Adjust the process curve according to the heating chamber’s current temperature.
5. Operation During Power Outage
When the system loses power, immediately close all pneumatic valves. If the outage occurs during the “material feeding” or “material unloading” process, follow these steps:
- During the “material feeding” process, switch from “automatic” to “manual” mode. After power is restored, complete the feeding process manually using the manual operation buttons, then switch back to “automatic” mode and continue normal operation.
- During the “material unloading” process, manually remove the workpiece and close the gate valves manually. After power is restored, resume normal operation. “Manual” here means physically turning the end of the DC motor shaft by hand or with a tool to actuate the mechanism.