Fluidized bed cellulation process

A method for making cellular glass nodules comprising the steps of,

• providing discrete uncellulated sintered particles of a mixture of pulverulent glass and a cellulating agent,
• coating said uncellulated discrete sintered particles of pulverulent glass and cellulating agent with a parting agent and forming coated discrete sintered particles,
• introducing said coated discrete sintered particles of pulverulent glass and cellulating agent into a fluidizing vessel,
• passing hot gas upwardly through said fluidizing vessel at a sufficient velocity to form a fluidized bed of said coated discrete sintered particles within said vessel,
• heating said hot gas and fluidized bed of coated discrete sintered particles within said vessel to a cellulating temperature of said coated sintered particles so that said coated discrete sintered particles cellulate within said vessel to form discrete cellular glass nodules of uniform size, said cellular glass nodules having a density less than the density of said sintered particles, said cellular glass nodules rising to the top of said fluidized bed and floating on the top surface of said fluidized bed, and
• withdrawing said discrete cellular glass nodules floating on said top surface of said fluidized bed from said fluidizing vessel.

A method for making cellular glass nodules comprising the steps of,

• providing discrete sintered particles of pulverulent glass and a cellulating agent,
• sizing said discrete sintered particles of pulverulent glass and cellulating agent to a preferred size consist,
• coating said discrete sized sintered particles of pulverulent glass and cellulating agent with a parting agent and forming coated discrete sized sintered particles,
• introducing said coated discrete sintered particles into a fluidizing vessel,
• passing hot gas upwardly through said fluidizing vessel at a sufficient velocity to form a fluidized bed of said coated discrete sintered particles within said fluidizing vessel,
• heating said hot gas and fluidized bed of sintered particles within said fluidizing vessel to a cellulating temperature of said coated discrete sintered particles so that said coated discrete sintered particles cellulate within said fluidizing vessel to form discrete cellular glass nodules of uniform size, said cellular glass nodules having a density less than the density of said sintered particles, said cellular glass nodules rising to the top of said fluidized bed and on the top surface of said fluidized bed,
• forming a fluidized bed of cellular glass nodules within said fluidizing vessel,
• cooling said discrete cellular glass nodules within said fluidizing vessel, and
• withdrawing said cooled discrete cellular glass nodules from said fluidizing vessel.