The benefits of this system over traditional variac systems, which considerably extend the life of the furnace, are:
soft start
ramp rate
power limit
over temperature device
The FTT ISO 1182 apparatus consists of the following:
SPECIAL TUBE FURNACE
Manufactured from steel with a polished finish. This single zone furnace has a maximum operating temperature of 900°C. The furnace is easily replaceable during maintenance and servicing procedures.
INSTRUMENTATION
A 19" instrument case houses all the instrumentation. This unit features a temperature controller, an over-temperature alarm and a power controller, which controls the furnace temperature at 750°C, compensating for supply voltage fluctuations and displaying the power (Watts) being supplied to the furnace.
SOFTWARE (NonComb)
The software is a Microsoft Windows based application with simple push button actions, data entry fields, check boxes and other standard Windows operations.
The operator can monitor temperatures on a Status panel, before performing a test, without recording any data. Before a test, the specimen information (material name, density, mass, laboratory name, etc.) is entered into the computer and saved to a file.
During a test, the temperature of the furnace, specimen surface and specimen centre thermocouples are recorded at a rate of 2 Hz (i.e. every 0.5 seconds) and the temperatures displayed on a graph in real time. Also the initial, maximum and final temperatures recorded by the three thermocouples are displayed during the test run.
After the test, the user is prompted to enter any comments about the material performance, the total time of sustained flaming and the final mass. The appropriate temperature rises are calculated and then a report for the test specimen can be generated.
The test report shows the material information, the initial, maximum and final temperatures, the required temperature rises, the total flaming time, the mass loss (actual and as a percentage of the initial mass) and a graph of the recorded temperatures against time. The test report also includes a reference to the pass-fail criteria given in the appropriate Standards and states whether the specimen meets these criteria.
All the test data is saved to the hard disk as an ASCII file which can then be imported into spreadsheets for additional analysis.