High-temperature furnaces manufacturer Carbolite in June unveiled its new Carbolite CAF G5 ash-fusibility furnace, which is now locally available through laboratory equip-ment and analytical instruments supplier Labotec, Carbolite’s South African agent.

An ash-fusibility furnace determines the ash-fusibility for coal ash, ash from biomass, solid-recovered fuels (SRF), or cofired ash.

The CAF G5, like all ash-fusibility furnaces, determines sintering, melting and flow temperatures of coal- and biomass-ash fusibility, and has the added advantage of automated image analysis and an improved camera resolution and zoom facility to greatly enhance the quality of test results.

The ash-fusibility furnace reaches a maximum temperature of 1 600 °C, which is what enables both biomass and coal testing.

In addition, owing to lightweight insulation, more rapid heating and cooling rates allow for the user to conduct up to three tests a day.

A large-diameter work tube ensures that only one unit is required to test more than six test pieces at any one time.

The CAF G5 ash-fusibility furnace systems’ new software offers users the choice of conducting automatic or manual analysis samples. The automatic version identifies the four melt point profiles, as determined in the coal ash, biomass and SRF standards, and creates graphical data of the form factors, which include height, width and shape.

The user can decide which of these form factors they want displayed on the graph, while the software automatically stores the deformation points that can be printed out.

Some of the CAF G5’s features include a temperature controller program set up within the software, analysis software that can be used in fully automatic or manual modes, a software zoom function to enable accurate post-test analysis of individual samples with improved resolution and a space-saving embedded computer with Windows 7 Embedded Professional software.