The invention relates to a sintering furnace for components consisting of sintering material, especially dental components and in particular components consisting of ceramic, and a method for sintering such components. The sintering furnace 1 comprises a heatable furnace chamber 2 for the component 9 to be sintered, the furnace chamber 2 having a wall section 6 to be opened for inserting the component 9 to be sintered into the furnace chamber 2. Drive means 10 are provided for mechanized opening and closing of the wall section 6, and a control 11 is provided for the drive means 10 that has an actuation element 12 for the drive means 10. Furthermore, a heating device 5 for the furnace chamber 2 is provided, and the control 11 causes the furnace chamber 2 to be heated. Actuating the control element 12 triggers the loading sequence of the control 11, and the drive means 10 are automatically actuated by the control 11 corresponding to the loading sequence. An additional subject is a method for operating the sintering furnace, as well as a computer program therefor.