Systems and methods for in-line thermal flattening and enameling of steel sheets
AssigneeSteelcase Inc.
InventorKevin Peter Buchanan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure provides systems and methods for in-line thermal flattening and enameling of steel sheets. The systems and methods include an in-line thermal flattening of a feed stock steel sheet and a subsequent enamel coating of the steel sheet. The resulting enamel coated steel sheet has improved flatness compared with other coated steel sheets that are enamel coated but do not undergo the in-line thermal flattening. The systems and methods allow the use of less expensive source materials without sacrificing quality in the finished enameled product.
Claims32
A method of producing an enameled steel sheet having an enamel coating on both sides, the method comprising:
- a) in-line thermal flattening a feed stock steel sheet, thereby producing a thermally-flattened steel sheet;
- and
- b) subsequent to step a), enamel coating the thermally-flattened steel sheet on both sides, thereby producing the enameled steel sheet having the enamel coating on both sides, wherein executing the enamel coating of step b) directly to the feed stock steel sheet without the in-line thermal flattening of step a) produces a comparison enameled steel sheet having the enamel coating on both side, the comparison enameled steel sheet having a maximum deviation from flat of 0.5 mm or greater when a pressure of 20 kg/m2 is applied, the enameled steel sheet having a maximum deviation from flat of less than 0.5 mm when a pressure of 20 kg/m2 is applied.
A system comprising:
- a source zone for receiving a source product to be processed;
- an in-line thermal flattening zone downstream of the source zone;
- a two-side enameling zone downstream of the in-line thermal flattening zone;
- and
- a product removal zone for removing finished products from the system, the product removal zone downstream of the two-side enameling zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.