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A Four-Zone Furnace for Realization of Silver and Gold Freezing Points

Published

Author(s)

Dean C. Ripple, K Garrity, Christopher W. Meyer

Abstract

Recently, the Thermocouple Calibration Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology has used sodium heat-pipe furnaces for the realization of ITS-90 freezing points of aluminum, silver, and gold. When using a fixed-point cell mounted in a long silica-glass tube that extends to ambient temperature at the top of the furnace, we have observed significant thermal gradients along the well of the fixed-point cell, with the top of the well up to 0.1 K colder than the bottom. Furthermore, the heat-pipe lifetime is limited when used at the gold point (1064.18 C) for more than a few hundred hours. To address these problems, we have designed and built a four-zone furnace based on a temperature-controlled, graphite isothermal block, suspended inside a three-zone tube furnace. The three-zone furnace is of a commercial design. The graphite block is enclosed in an Inconel 600 can, allowing the graphite to be maintained in an argon atmosphere. The argon pressure is maintained at one atmosphere at all temperatures, thereby greatly reducing the stress on the Inconel can. Heaters in intimate contact with the can allow temperature control of the fourth inner zone to high accuracy. In this paper, the measured thermal stability and uniformity achieved with this furnace are described and compared with the predictions of design calculations. We also present results of test freezes of a silver freezing-point cell.
Proceedings Title
Temperature, International Symposium | 8th | Temperature Its Measurement and Control in Science and Industry; Volume Seven | AIP
Volume
684
Conference Dates
October 21-24, 2002
Conference Title
AIP Conference Proceedings

Keywords

fixed point, furnace, gold, ITS-90, silver, temerpature

Citation

Ripple, D. , Garrity, K. and Meyer, C. (2003), A Four-Zone Furnace for Realization of Silver and Gold Freezing Points, Temperature, International Symposium | 8th | Temperature Its Measurement and Control in Science and Industry; Volume Seven | AIP, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=830843 (Accessed March 29, 2024)
Created September 1, 2003, Updated February 17, 2017