Design, construction, and performance testing of an isothermal naphthalene heat pipe furnace

In this work, an isothermal naphthalene heat pipe furnace was developed to achieve uniformly radiant heating at temperature up to 300 °C. The startup, stability, and thermography tests were carried out to evaluate the uniform temperature zone of the furnace. The temperature variance of the uniform temperature zone was observed to be within ±1 °C along the axis of the furnace. To illustrate its capabilities, the furnace was used to successfully sinter thin layers of copper nanoparticle on microporous copper wicks and form biporous wicks, materials of high interest to advanced heat pipe technologies.