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.