Laboratory Melting systems include PAM Button Melter (PBM) and Tungsten electrode Button Melter (TBM). These systems are designed to allow small quantities of material to be melted for material development and for production quality control.

Retech Laboratory Furnaces are designed with research and development, or quality control needs in mind, prioritizing versatile configurability over production volume.  As such, Lab Furnaces are often equipped for multiple heat sources and hearth configurations, depending on the processes and materials under investigation.

Those equipped with Plasma torches are commonly known as Plasma arc Button Melters (PBM), most commonly used to produce “button” samples from 100 g to 1 kg, but configurable for ingots up to 100 kilograms.

The lab systems are typically operated manually to allow the operator to observe the melt process. They can be equipped with manual “flippers” to allow each sample to be flipped to ensure the material is fully melted through. A vacuum system is included to remove the air from the system prior to melting to reduce the contamination that can occur during melting. Once the system is evacuated it is backfilled with an inert gas (helium or argon) prior to melting.