Method and apparatus for uniformly heating a furnace
AssigneeNorth American Manufacturing Company
InventorsRobert A. Shannon, Lawrence Vincent Rich, Frank Christian Gilbert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus is disclosed for heating metal billets or other separate pieces of metal in a continuous furnace using two different burner systems. The primary burner system provides the majority of available heat at relatively high flame temperatures. The secondary high velocity burner system extrains how furnace products of combustion that impinge around on the load. Thus, heat transfer and temperature uniformity is improved by forcing hot gases between the metal pieces.
Claims8
A system for a continuous process of heating loads in a furnace, said system comprising:
- a movable structure configured to support the loads in a row in which adjacent loads are spaced from each other, and to advance the row of loads lengthwise along a path of movement extending through the furnace;
- a plurality of primary burners which are operative to fire primary flames into the furnace to produce primary products of combustion for heating the loads, said primary burners being spaced apart in a row extending alongside said path of movement and being oriented to project said primary flames in directions extending orthogonally across said path of movement at locations above the loads so as to avoid impingement of said primary flames with the loads;
- and
- a plurality of secondary burners which are operative to fire secondary flames into the furnace to produce secondary products of combustion for heating the loads, said secondary burners being spaced apart in a row extending alongside said path of movement at a location between said row of primary burners and the loads, and being oriented to project said secondary flames in directions extending orthogonally across said path of movement at angles inclined downward from said primary flames toward and between the loads so as to entrain said primary products of combustion downward between adjacent loads, and also to entrain said primary products of combustion downward into impingement with the loads, as the loads are advanced past said rows of burners.
A continuous process of heating loads in a furnace, said continuous process comprising the steps of:
- supporting the loads in a row in which adjacent loads arc spaced from each other, and advancing the row of loads lengthwise along a path of movement extending through the furnace;
- operating a plurality of primary burners to fire primary flames into the furnace and thereby to produce primary products of combustion for heating the loads, said primary burners being spaced apart in a row extending alongside said path of movement and being oriented to project said primary flames in directions extending orthogonally across said path of movement at locations above the loads so as to avoid impingement of said primary flames with the loads;
- and
- simultaneously operating a plurality of secondary burners to fire secondary flames into the furnace and thereby to produce secondary products of combustion for heating the loads, said secondary burners being spaced apart in a row extending alongside said path of movement at a location between said row of primary burners and the loads, and being oriented to project said secondary flames in directions extending orthogonally across said path of movement at angles inclined downward from said primary flames toward and between the loads so as to entrain said primary products of combustion downward between adjacent loads, and also to entrain said primary products of combustion downward into impingement with the loads, as the loads are advanced past said rows of burners.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.