What is reverberatory furnace?

A reverberatory furnace is a chamber-type flame furnace widely used in industrial smelting.

Structural Components

Reverberatory furnace consists of a furnace base, furnace bottom, furnace walls, furnace roof, charging port, product discharge port, and flue. Ancillary equipment includes charging devices, air blasting devices, fume exhaust devices, and waste heat recovery devices. The furnace base must be solid, and the furnace bottom must withstand high temperatures and melt pressure. The inner layer of the furnace walls is constructed of different refractory materials, such as magnesia bricks and magnesia-alumina bricks, depending on the type of metal being smelted. The furnace roof can be brick-built or suspended, and the product discharge port can be perforated, scooped, or siphon-type.

Operating Principle

The fuel mixes thoroughly with air in the combustion chamber and burns, generating high-temperature flames and furnace gases, reaching temperatures of 1500°C to 1700°C or even higher. These high-temperature flames and furnace gases flow within the furnace, transferring some of the heat directly to the material through radiation and some indirectly through reflection from the furnace roof and walls, heating the material, melting it, and initiating physical and chemical reactions.

Features of Reverberatory Furnace

This smelter features a simple structure, low investment, and strong adaptability to raw materials and fuels.  Reverberatory furnace can process a wide range of materials, especially fine-grained powders, and is easily scalable and cost-effective. However, reverberatory furnace also suffers from disadvantages such as significant metal oxidation losses, high fuel consumption, large flue gas volumes with low sulfur dioxide concentrations, difficulty in recycling, and environmental pollution.

Applications of Reverberatory Furnace

This smelter is an important smelting equipment for non-ferrous metals such as copper, nickel, and tin. Reverberatory furnace is used to process ores and concentrates, smelt ferroalloys, and perform metal pyro-refining. Reverberatory furnace is commonly used as a roasting equipment in metallurgy and chemical industries.