Continuous graphitizing furnace with a vertical displacement of the charge
AssigneeElettrocarbonium S.p.A.
InventorsJean Louis Genevois, Rolando Bufarale
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for manufacturing carbon articles such as cylindrical electrodes, by employing a continuous operation wherein the electrodes are charged into a suitable apparatus and atmosphere, heated and thereafter cooled and discharged therefrom.
Claims10
Continuous graphitizing furnace for carbon electrodes with vertical charge displacement, wherein the charge is formed by granulated insulating material and the electrodes to be graphitized comprising;
- an elongated hollow furnace body of a given deepness and defined by two side walls, two end walls and a concave bottom;
- a base for said body;
- a sloped grate crossing said hollow furnace body, having its upper part fixed to one wall of said defining walls and its lower part in the opposite wall;
- an exit opening formed along the entire base of said opposite wall;
- two head electrodes supported by the upper part of said end walls of the furnace;
- extracting means arranged in said concave bottom for extracting said granulated insulating material;
- and electrical connecting bars for electrically connecting the power transformer to said head electrodes.
The method of continuously graphitizing elongated carbon products which includes, providing a furnace having a cavity accessible from the top, head electrodes in said cavity, means for removing insulating material from the bottom and means for removing the graphitized products from a side, filling substantially the whole furnace cavity with granulated insulating material;
- placing amorphous elongated carbon blanks to be graphitized on said granulated material between said head electrodes;
- supplying power to said head electrodes for heating the blanks to be graphitized placed therebetween;
- cutting off the power supply after said amorphous blanks are graphitized;
- operating said removing means for removing a portion of said granulated insulating material from the furnace bottom so that the top level of the insulating material level sinks in the furnace cavity, placing a fresh group of amorphous carbon blanks to be graphitized between said head electrodes;
- filling up again the furnace cavity with granulated insulating material and supplying again the electric current to said head electrodes for the next graphitizing cycle, and repeating the cycle as many times as desired;
- the graphitized products sinking gradually in the furnace charge and being mechanically separated from the insulating material and removed, when duly cooled, from a side of the furnace.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.