Joint assembly for connecting two tubes
AssigneeASM International N.V.
InventorsChristianus Gerardus Maria De Ridder, Pieter Johannes Quintus Van Voorst Vader
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Joint assembly for connecting two ceramic material tubes. One of the tubes is provided with a cup and the other tube with a ball to be received in said cup. To prevent atmospheric gases entering at the joint of the cup and ball inert gas in introduced at super atmospheric pressure at the innerface between cup and ball.
Claims11
A joint assembly for connecting two ceramic material tubes, wherein one of the tubes comprises at a first end a cup shaped member and the other tube comprises at a first end a ball shaped member adapted to be received in the cup shaped member, so as to define a cup/ball interface, the cup shaped member being provided with a gas feed channel discharging at a first end into an annular groove at the cup/ball interface and at the other end connected to a conduit outside the cup shaped member, the conduit being connected to an inert gas source having a pressure above atmospheric pressure.
A method for operating a furnace, comprising:
- providing a ceramic material furnace tube in which a substrate is processed and through which a processing gas is flowed;
- connecting a ceramic material discharge tube to the furnace tube through a ball joint discharging processing gas and reactants through the ball joint comprising a ball and a cup and defining a gap therebetween;
- and
- introducing an inert gas having a super atmospheric pressure between the cup and the ball of the ball joint.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.