Electron-beam furnace
{{Short description|Furnace that uses an electron beam to melt material}}
An electron-beam furnace (EB furnace) is a type of vacuum furnace employing high-energy electron beam in vacuum as the means for delivery of heat to the material being melted. It is one of the electron-beam technologies.
Use
Electron-beam furnaces are used for production and refining of high-purity metals (especially titanium, vanadium, tantalum, niobium, hafnium, etc.) and some exotic alloys.{{cite web |url=http://www.investquest.com/iq/a/ati/fin/annual/06/glossary.pdf |title=Archived copy |website=www.investquest.com |access-date=20 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070731042610/http://www.investquest.com/iq/a/ati/fin/annual/06/glossary.pdf |archive-date=31 July 2007 |url-status=dead}} The EB furnaces use a hot cathode for production of electrons and high voltage for accelerating them towards the target to be melted.{{Cite web |date=2024-03-05 |title=What Causes Furnace’s High Limit Switch to Keep Tripping? |url=https://snyderac.com/blog/whats-causing-my-furnaces-high-limit-switch-to-keep-tripping/ |access-date=2024-04-18 |language=en-US}}
Alternatives
An alternative for an electron-beam furnace can be an electric arc furnace in vacuum.{{Cite web |url=http://web.ald-vt.de/cms/vakuum-technologie/anlagen/electron-beam-melting-eb/|title=Electron Beam Melting (EB) - ALD Vacuum Technologies |last=Technologies |first=ALD Vacuum |website=web.ald-vt.de |language=en|access-date=2017-10-08|archive-date=2017-10-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009042334/http://web.ald-vt.de/cms/vakuum-technologie/anlagen/electron-beam-melting-eb/|url-status=dead}} Somewhat similar technologies are electron-beam melting and electron-beam welding.