High-pressure tank producing apparatus

A high-pressure tank producing apparatus that heats a tank body with fibers impregnated with a thermosetting resin wound around its surface so as to cure the thermosetting resin, the high-pressure tank producing apparatus comprising:

• a heating chamber adapted to house the tank body;
• and
• a support adapted to retain the tank body within the heating chamber,
• wherein:
• the tank body comprises a cylindrical cylinder portion and dome portions provided at opposite end portions in an axial direction of the cylinder portion,
• the heating chamber has an injection port for injecting heated gas onto a surface of at least the cylinder portion of the tank body and an exhaust port for discharging the gas to an outside of the heating chamber, the exhaust port being disposed in a position opposite to the injection port with respect to the tank body in a gas injecting direction and where the injection port is projected in the gas injecting direction,
• the support retains the tank body in a region where the injection port and the exhaust port overlap with each other as viewed from the gas injecting direction and in a position between the injection port and the exhaust port,
• a distance between the injection port and the cylinder portion and a distance between the exhaust port and the cylinder portion are each shorter than an outer diameter of the cylinder portion,
• the tank body is one of a plurality of tank bodies,
• the injection port is one of a plurality of injection ports,
• the exhaust port is one of a plurality of exhaust ports,
• the heating chamber is a continuous furnace comprising a plurality of pairs of the injection ports and the exhaust ports, the continuous furnace being configured to continuously convey and heat a plurality of the tank bodies conveyed through the continuous furnace along a direction intersecting a center axis of each of the plurality of tank bodies and intersecting a plurality of the gas injecting directions defined between each of the plurality of pairs of the injection ports and the exhaust ports, the plurality of the pairs of the injection ports and the exhaust ports being disposed with a predetermined pitch along the direction in which the plurality of tank bodies are conveyed and heated, and
• the support is adapted to periodically retain each of the plurality of high-pressure tank bodies at the predetermined pitch along the direction in which the plurality of tank bodies are conveyed, in alignment with a respective one of the plurality of pairs of the injection ports and the exhaust ports for a predetermined period of time.