Energy Conservation in a Powder Metal Sintering Operation

With the exception of particular equipment manufacturers designs, this sintering system is typical of gas fired, muffle type, sintering equipment in the powder metal industry and the energy conservations methods employed are generally applicable to similar operations. Specifically, these conservation techniques focus on (1) the conservation of natural gas utility by waste heat recovery from the sintering operation and (2) the reduction of natural gas usage by the substitution of nitrogen base atmosphere in place of the endothermic process.