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AssigneeU.S. Philips Corporation
InventorsJohn C. Brice, Colin R. Brough
Estimating the term…
It is necessary in many heat treatment processes conducted in open systems to maintain a given partial pressure of a volatile component of a material being treated, and it is desirable to conserve this volatile component, both on account of cost and in the case of components such as mercury, toxicity. A controlled unsaturated vapor pressure of a volatile liquid 28 may be produced in a tube 3 by passing a stream of a carrier gas through a vaporizer 4 containing the liquid 28 at a temperature T.sub.s, passing the mixture of the carrier gas and vapor of the liquid 28 through a tube 3 containing material 29 to be treated, which material 29 is at a temperature T.sub.t. The mixture of the carrier gas and vapor of the liquid 28 is then passed to a condenser 6 from which the carrier gas is vented to waste, and the vapor of the liquid 28 is condensed at a temperature T.sub.c in the condenser 6. T.sub.t >T.sub.s >T.sub.c. The condensate passes from the condenser 6 to the vaporizer 4 through a tube 12, and the liquid 28 fills a cross-section of a length of the tube 12.
A method of producing a controlled unsaturated vapour pressure of a volatile liquid at a temperature T.sub.t in a heat treatment chamber, said method comprising the steps of passing a stream of a carrier gas through a vapouriser containing the volatile liquid at a temperature T.sub.s, passing the mixture of the carrier gas and the vapour of the volatile liquid through the heat treatment chamber which is at the temperature T.sub.t, leading the mixture of the carrier gas and the vapour of the volatile liquid from the heat treatment chamber to a condenser from which the carrier gas is vented to waste and in which condenser the volatile liquid is condensed at a temperature T.sub.c, that the condensate is recycled through the vapouriser, that T.sub.t >T.sub.s >T.sub.c, and that the volatile liquid in a tube through which the condensate passes from the condenser to the vapouriser fills the cross-section of a length of the tube.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.