Apparatus and Process for Producing Fiber from Igneous Rock

A method of producing fibers, comprising the steps of:

• obtaining a quantity of crushed igneous rock to be converted to fiber;
• transporting said batch to a melting furnace, wherein the melting furnace is at least partially surrounded by a first electrical induction coil;
• applying alternating current to the first induction coil, effective to heat the batch to a temperature greater than the melting point of all minerals in the batch to produce an homogenous rock melt in at least a portion of said batch;
• flowing the homogenous rock melt into a conditioning chamber through an opening in an upper portion of a wall of said melting furnace, wherein said conditioning furnace is at least partially surrounded by a second induction coil;
• applying electrical current to the second induction coil effective to suppress conductive stirring of rock melt and to allow temperature to decrease to produce conditioned rock melt;
• flowing said conditioned rock melt into a plurality of fiber forming chambers, wherein each fiber forming chamber is at least partially surrounded by a fiber forming chamber inductive coil;
• applying electrical current to said fiber forming chamber inductive coils, effective to reach and maintain conditioned melt at fiber forming temperature;
• flowing conditioned melt from fiber forming chambers through a plurality of orifices in bottom surface of a fiber forming chamber to produce fibers extruded from at least a portion of said orifices, thereby forming fibers.

An apparatus for producing fibers comprising:

• a melting furnace configured with an opening to receive batches of raw basalt or igneous rock, wherein said melting furnace comprises a chamber divided into a first zone for receiving charged batches and a second zone for prepared melt, wherein the first and second zones are divided by an underflow baffle and wherein a wall of the second zone forms an exit opening positioned nearer to the top of the melting furnace chamber than to the passageway under the underpass baffle;
• a melting furnace electrical induction coil disposed at least partially around said melting furnace;
• a generator and high frequency converter electrically connected to said melting furnace electrical induction coil;
• a cooling jacket disposed in the walls of said melting furnace and connected to one or more water supply and heat exchanger units;
• a conditioning chamber comprising a horizontal channel with a first end and a second end, wherein the conditioning chamber is in fluid communication with said second zone through said exit opening, and wherein the bottom wall of the conditioning chamber forms a plurality of openings in spaced relation along the length of the conditioning chamber toward said second end;
• a conditioning chamber electrical induction coil disposed at least partially around the conditioning chamber;
• a generator and high frequency converter electrically connected to said conditioning chamber electrical induction coil;
• a cooling jacket disposed in the walls of said conditioning chamber and connected to one or more water supply and heat exchanger units;
• a plurality of fiber forming chambers, each disposed below the conditioning chamber and in fluid communication with the conditioning chamber through one of said openings in the bottom wall of the conditioning chamber, and each fiber forming chamber comprising a fiber forming surface disposed in the bottom of each of said fiber forming chambers, and further wherein each fiber forming surface comprises a plurality of orifices sized and configured to form filaments from rock melt as it passes through said orifices;
• a fiber forming chamber electrical induction coil disposed at least partially around each fiber forming chamber;
• a generator and high frequency converter electrically connected to each fiber forming chamber electrical induction coil;
• and
• a cooling jacket disposed in the walls of each fiber forming chamber and connected to a water supply and heat exchanger unit.