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US 10,611,686 B2Granted
Method and device for producing an expanded granulate
AssigneeBinder GmbH
InventorsErnst Erwin Brunnmair, Gerhard Salchinger
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AssigneeBinder GmbH
InventorsErnst Erwin Brunnmair, Gerhard Salchinger
Estimating the term…
The invention relates to a method for producing an expanded granulate (29) made of a sand grain-shaped mineral material (1) using a propellant; wherein the material (1) is fed to a substantially upright furnace (2); wherein the material (1) is conveyed along a conveying path (4) through a plurality of vertically separated healing zones (5) in a furnace shaft (3) of the furnace (2), wherein each heating zone (5) can be heated by at least one independently controllable heating element (6); wherein the material (1) is heated to a critical temperature at which the surfaces (7) of the sand grains (1) become plastic and the sand grains (1) are expanded through the propellant. It is provided according to the invention that the material (1) is fed together with an amount of air from below, wherein the material (1) is conveyed from bottom to top along the conveying path (4) by means of the amount of air which flows from bottom to top within the furnace shaft (3) and forms an air flow (14), and wherein the expanding of the sand grains (1) occurs in the upper half, preferably in the uppermost third, of the conveying path (4).
A method for producing an expanded granulate made of a sand grain-shaped mineral material using a propellant;
A device for producing an expanded granulate made of a sand grain-shaped material, comprising a substantially upright furnace with a furnace shaft having an upper end and a lower end, wherein a conveying path extends between the two ends and passes through a plurality of vertically separated heating zones wherein the heating zones each have at least one independently controllable heating element to heat the material to a critical temperature and to expand the sand grains, characterized in that at least one feeding means is provided in order to inject the unexpanded material together with an amount of air at the bottom end of the furnace shaft in the direction of the upper end of the furnace shaft into the furnace shaft in such a way that the amount of air forms an upwardly flowing air flow, by means of which the material is conveyed from bottom to top along the conveying path in order to be expanded in the upper half of the conveying path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.