Furnace Muffle and Replacement Costs

Investing in a replacement furnace muffle is an important consideration. You want to make sure your next investment is a wise one from the perspective of up-front cost and it’s expected lifespan. If you are looking for ways to extend the life of your muffle, then your internal team – maintenance manager, process engineer and purchasing manager – should be working closely together during this process.

Here are several steps you can take to keep the cost of a muffle replacement in-check and ensure you obtain the longest life possible.

Understand your failure modes

It’s vital to explore why your muffle is failing. Is it leaking? Are you experiencing a roof collapse? Some of these failure modes may not be immediately obvious or they might be difficult to detect early. But it’s important to start recognizing and discussing why your muffle is failing so you can begin discussions related to a re-design.

Initiate these conversions internally with your team, and then bring in trusted vendors to get their input on different ways to re-work your design.

Work on a re-design as early as possible

All muffles will eventually need to be replaced, and there are several factors to consider that can extend their life. The development of a new/modified design will include conversations about materials selection, welding techniques and corrugation style.

Every furnace is different. Your needs might involve selecting the right alloy to better resist creep at higher temperatures. Another furnace might need a muffle strengthened to prevent the bottom from humping.

These are not conversations you want to rush when you prematurely pull a muffle from service and need a new one as soon as possible. Start exploring re-design options sooner rather than later so you’re prepared.

Understand muffle cost and failure cost

There are two factors to consider here.

First, is the up-front investment in the muffle. The design of the muffle ultimately determines the cost and it’s lifespan. Remember, you get what you pay for. Do you want to make some concessions in the design and fabrication to save on the up-front cost? Or are you willing invest more upfront to increase the life span?

You should know your historic replacement costs and the typical lifespan of your muffle; then you can start to crunch the numbers related to your investment over the next several years.

The second part of this is related to the cost of a muffle failure – that’s right, there is a cost associated with furnace downtime. Check out our previous article that further explains how to calculate these numbers.

Determining the optimal muffle for your application takes time. It involves several conversations internally, as well conversations to identify a supplier who can design a muffle for optimum performance and life in its intended application.

Alloy Engineering offers muffles in a variety of application-specific configurations. To learn more, contact us here or call us at 440.243.6800.