The ProboStat is mainly a base unit that provides all the attachments and feedthroughs for ceramic and noble metal assemblies that hold and contact a sample (disk or bar shaped) subject to electrical and other measurements at high temperatures in controlled atmospheres.

The base unit is held in the cold zone outside a tube furnace and provides fastening of a sample support tube (10-24 mm diameter), an outer enclosing tube, gas tubes, electrode contacts, thermocouples, and a spring load that all go into the hot zone of the furnace. All these parts can be made by the customer according to instructions in the manual, or they can be bought from NORECS. All hot zone parts are easily detachable and replaceable.

All ProboStats are compatible, so that buying a ProboStat^TM is entering into a standardized system.

ProboStat base units have 16 electrical feedthroughs. Of these, 6 are intended for up to 3 thermocouples, 2 are for electrode contacts inside the sample support tube, and 4 for electrode contacts outside it. The remaining 4 are for shields. The ProboStat has 2 gas inlets and 2 gas outlets, thus allowing the two chambers obtained if a disk sample is sealed to the support tube to be operated with different atmospheres. It can be water cooled. It can stand on a flat table top or lab jack underneath the tube furnace or be fastened to a lab stand or rack.