Muffle Furnace -Sop for Operation and cleaning

It describes the (Standard Operating procedure) Sop for Operation and Cleaning of Muffle Furnace.

Table of Contents

Sop for Operation and Cleaning of Muffle Furnace

The purpose of this document is to lay down the procedure of operation, cleaning and Calibration of Muffle furnace.
This procedure is applicable for operation, cleaning and calibration of muffle furnace used in Quality Control Department.

• All Microbiologist, Quality personnel shall be responsible to follow and implement this SOP.

Ensure that the power supply to the Muffle Furnace is switched OFF before cleaning.
Clean the instrument with a clean dry cloth every day and occasionally wet cloth dipped in dilute soap solution may be used.
Precautions have to be taken to clean the instrument immediately wet cloth removes the moisture.

Ensure that the instrument is clean.
Check the calibration status.
Do not set the temperature above 1100°C.
Use asbestos hand gloves and long stainless steel pair of tongs for handling.
Use asbestos hand gloves and long stainless steel pair of tongs for handling of crucible.
Don’t open the door frequently to avoid thermal shock.
Initially heat the sample on hot plates in fuming chamber before keeping in muffle furnace.
Wait until the desired required set temperature ±5°C is achieved.

Switch ON the main supply of muffle furnace
The red colour display will indicate the actual temperature and
yellow colour display will indicate the earlier set temperature.
Press the main key for changing temperature.
For increase or decrease the temperature press arrow mark as per requirements.
Allow the instrument to reach the set temperature.
Open the door and keep sample crucible in the muffle furnace and follow respective procedure/specification.
After completion of ignition as described in the procedure/ specification, the door and remove the crucible from furnace with the help of pair of tongs.
Close the door and switch OFF the heater and main switch of the instrument.

Calibration Frequency: yearly.
Calibrate the equipment from the outside party once in a year.
Handle the out of calibration results as per Out of specification SOP of respective unit
Maintain the instrument usage log book as per respective SOP Handling of instrument usage log book.