Reinforced plastic container with an integral heating element and a method of forming the same
AssigneePlas-Tanks Industries, Inc.
InventorRobert W. Newbold, Jr.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A plastic reinforced fiberglass container has heating element integrally bonded into the container's interlaminate structure and preferably between the corrosion liner and the structural lamina to permit efficient heating of the container contents. A thermocouple is also embedded in the interlaminate structure and preferably positioned at the same location to achieve sensitive temperature control of the container's contents.
Claims13
A method of making a reinforced plastic container having an integral heating element, comprising:
- (a) covering a mold having a container shaped configuration with a first reinforced plastic material;
- (b) covering the first reinforced plastic material on the mold with a resin;
- (c) placing an electrical heating element which is encapsulated in a plastic material on the resin covered first reinforced plastic material, said encapsulating plastic material being bondable to the first reinforced plastic material;
- (d) applying a further covering of resin to both the encapsulating material and the resin covered first reinforced plastic material to secure the encapsulated heating element to the first reinforced material;
- and
- (e) applying a further covering of plastic reinforced material to the covered mold and bonding said further covering to both said encapsulated electrical heating element and to said first reinforced plastic material applied to the mold prior to placement of the heating element, said further covering of plastic reinforced material being applied after the further covering of resin has been applied to both the encapsulating material and the resin covered first reinforced plastic material.
A method of making a plastic fiberglass reinforced fluid container with an integral heating element, comprising:
- (a) covering a mold with a covering of fiberglass;
- (b) coating the covering of step (a) with a backup mixture of chopped glass and resin, the backup mixture forming fiberglass;
- (c) applying a catalyst to the backup to induce an exothermic chemical reaction with the backup mixture and covering and allowing the covering and mixture to cool to form a corrosion liner;
- (d) placing and securing an electrical resistance heating element encapsulated in fiberglass on the cooled corrosion liner;
- (e) bonding a structural support layer of fiberglass to the corrosion liner and sandwiching the encapsulated heating element between the corrosion liner and the structural layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.