How The Unit Works; Heating; Access To The Furnace; Agitation And Pouring Of The Melt - Katanax K2 Prime Manual

Heating

Heating of both the mold and the crucible supports is achieved using a state-of-
the art heating element alloy coiled around rigid ceramic rods. These rods run
along a semi-soft, highly insulating material. These parts are then assembled into
an aluminum shell.
During heating, temperature is controlled by means of a platinum thermocouple.
This same thermocouple also allows the furnace to be kept at a preset, constant
temperature to quicken initial ramping before a fusion.
Access to the
furnace
Stepper motors automatically open the door, move the platinumware holders into
the furnace, and finally re-close the door. Upon pouring, the same sequence is
repeated in reverse order.
During a fusion, the safety shield remains locked, to prevent accidental burns
when the platinumware holders move in and out of the furnace.
Agitation and
pouring of the
melt
Homogenization of the sample into the flux is produced by the rotation of two
synchronous stepper motors located at the far right and left of the instrument.
These motors directly drive the crucible holder with a back-and-forth motion to
agitate the melt.
Just before the final pouring motion, both motors drive the crucible holders as if to
"pour backwards", but the motion is stopped by a mechanical bumper. This
ensures perfect alignment of both ends of the crucible holder. (This is called
twisting correction.)
At the moment of pouring, the motors rotate the crucible holder forward to an
adjustable pouring angle, at an adjustable speed. The melt pours naturally into
the molds, and this can be helped with an optional shaking of the crucible in
pouring position.
The crucible holder is then automatically brought back to the vertical, ready for
another fusion.
The pouring step can also be completely disabled, for procedures such as
pyrosulfate or peroxide fusions, which do not need transferring the melt into
another container.

How the unit works

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