Method and apparatus for producing small hollow spheres
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorCharles D. Hendricks
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for producing small hollow spheres of glass, metal or plastic, wherein the sphere material is mixed with or contains as part of the composition a blowing agent which decomposes at high temperature (T.gtoreq.600.degree. C.). As the temperature is quickly raised, the blowing agent decomposes and the resulting gas expands from within, thus forming a hollow sphere of controllable thickness. The thus produced hollow spheres (20 to 10.sup.3 .mu.m) have a variety of application, and are particularly useful in the fabrication of targets for laser implosion such as neutron sources, laser fusion physics studies, and laser initiated fusion power plants.
Claims5
An apparatus for producing small hollow spheres of uniform diameter and wall thickness comprising a droplet generator and a multiple zone oven interconnected such that certain of the drops formed by said droplet generator pass through said multiple zone oven wherein said drops are dried and formed into hollow spheres, said droplet generator inluding means for forming drops of sphere forming material which are directed along a flow path to said multiple zone oven, means for electrically charging at least part of the drops, and means for deflecting said charged drops from along said flow path whereby only uncharged drops are directed into said oven;
- said multiple zone oven having means for controlling the temperature in each zone thereof such that each subsequent zone is of a high temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.