Thermo Scientific
On demand
Thermo Scientific Thermolyne benchtop muffle furnace, 240 V, for ashing, ignition and any work above the reach of a drying oven.
F47910
A muffle furnace is what you use when an oven is not nearly hot enough. Where a drying oven works in the low hundreds of degrees to remove water, a muffle furnace reaches the temperatures at which organic matter burns away completely and minerals fuse.
The classic job is ash content: a sample is weighed, burned until only inorganic residue remains, and weighed again. The difference is the organic fraction. It is a foundational measurement in food, fuel, soil, cement and waste analysis, and there is no shortcut to it.
The other regular jobs are igniting a filter to constant weight, cleaning crucibles so completely that nothing of the previous sample survives, and heat treating small parts.
The chamber is muffled — the heating elements are outside the ceramic liner, not in the chamber. That keeps combustion products, flame and element debris away from the sample, which matters when the answer is a weight measured to a fraction of a milligram.
Everything about a muffle furnace is hot in a way that is not obvious. The chamber glows, the door front reaches burn temperature, and a crucible removed with the wrong tongs radiates enough heat to blister. Use long crucible tongs, heat-resistant gloves and a face shield, keep combustibles well clear of the front, and always cool samples in a desiccator rather than on the bench.
Supplied in the 240 V configuration; confirm the supply at the installation point before ordering.