Apparatus for producing a foamed-glass or foamed-ceramic strip

An apparatus for producing a shaped body of foamed glass or foamed ceramic from a foamable material, comprising:

• a tunnel furnace adapted to heat said material to induce foaming and produce said body from said material;
• a track having a stretch disposed above said furnace, said furnace having a slot extending below said track;
• a plurality of openended molds adapted to receive said material and alignable in end-to-end substantially abutting relationship in said furnace, the bottom of each mold being laterally swingable to open downwardly;
• a respective trolley assigned to each mold and riding on said track;
• hanger means including at least one hanger suspending each mold from the respective trolley and extending through said slot;
• respective spacers connected to each hanger means shaped from the respective molds and adapted to about one another upon alignment of said molds to limit the force transmitted from mold to mold;
• a pusher adapted to displace said molds into said furnace at a feed end thereof and effective to apply force in line with said spacers;
• means forming a moving seal between said hangers and said furnace to substantially block said slot;
• means downstream of said furnace along said path for swinging said mold bottoms laterally to open the molds downwardly;
• means along said path for effecting relative vertical separation of the molds and said strand to remove said strand from said molds through the bottoms thereof;
• means for severing the strand removed from said molds into blocks;
• and
• means for returning molds from which said strand has been removed to said feed end of said furnace.