Patents Examined by Jae Dillon, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6336775
    Abstract: A gas floating-transporting apparatus transports a material to be treated along a predetermined direction in a thermal space so as to thermally treat the material to be treated. The apparatus includes a gas floating mechanism and a transporting mechanism. The gas floating mechanism includes a gas ejection device which expels the gas toward a portion of the material to be treated on which a floating force is acted so as to float the material to be treated, and a gas supply device which supplies the gas to the gas ejection means. The transporting mechanism includes an abutting member which abuts a trailing end of the floated material to be treated and moves along the predetermined direction, and which pushes the material to be treated by the movement thereof, whereby the floated material to be treated is moved along the predetermined direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Morita, Yuji Tsutsui, Masaru Yoshida, Nobuhito Yokoyama, Kenji Tanimoto