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US 4,966,547 AGranted
Heat treatment method using a zoned tunnel furnace
AssigneeCentral Glass Company, Limited
InventorsTakashi Okuyama, Yutaka Yamauchi
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AssigneeCentral Glass Company, Limited
InventorsTakashi Okuyama, Yutaka Yamauchi
Estimating the term…
The invention relates to the control of a tunnel furnace partitioned into a plurality of zones for heat treatment of, e.g., ceramic or glass workpieces. As usual the temperatures of the respective zones are controllable individually. Furthermore, in each of selected zones the temperature of that zone is varied from a first level to a second level during the stay of each workpiece in that zone and returned to the first level in a predetermined time after letting the workpiece out of that zone, and the length of stay of each workpiece in that zone is controlled such that another workpiece can be introduced into that zone while the preceding workpiece stays in the next zone and such that a number of workpieces can be heat treated in succession under the same time-temperature conditions.
A method of heat treating a plurality of workpieces in succession by passing each workpiece through a tunnel furnace partitioned into a plurality of zones which are in series and adjacent to each other by selectively openable shutters, the method comprising the steps of:
A method of heat treating a plurality of workpieces in succession by passing each workpiece through a tunnel furnace, the tunnel furnace being partitioned into a plurality of zones in series and separate from each other by selectively openable shutters, the method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.