Patent ID: 8134100

Claim:
A heat processing furnace comprising: a processing vessel capable of accommodating an object to be processed and subjecting the object to be processed to a heat process; a cylindrical heat insulation member surrounding the processing vessel; a helical heating resistor arranged along an inner peripheral surface of the heat insulation member; a support member disposed on the inner peripheral surface of the heat insulation member in parallel with an axial direction thereof, for supporting the heating resistor at predetermined pitches along the axial direction; and a plurality of terminal plates axially arranged on an outside of the heating resistor at suitable intervals therebetween, the terminal plates radially passing through the heat insulation member so as to be extended outside; wherein: the support member includes a base part positioned on an inside of the heating resistor, and a plurality of support pieces extending radially outward from the base part through spaces between adjacent portions of the heating resistor so as to support the heating resistor, the support member being formed to have a comb-like shape; and an upper surface part of each of the support pieces is formed to have a curved shape in order to reduce a frictional resistance generated when the heating resistor is moved upon a thermal expansion and a thermal shrinkage thereof.