Abstract: A furnace for heating one or more bodies in which heated gas is introduced into the furnace chamber through one or more injectors and are conveyed to the bodies in a manner involving appreciable resistance to gas flow. In a preferred arrangement a continuous metal strip is conveyed through the furnace on a gaseous support cushion, the gas being introduced into the furnace under pressure through injectors which communicate with the lower portion of the furnace. The injectors generate a substantial recirculation of gas within the furnace.

Abstract: Apparatus for heat shrinking pre-oriented polyolefin plastic sleeves over the outer surface of a glass bottle. The bottles with sleeves in position thereon are gripped and suspended from rotatable chucks spaced along a movable conveyor means extending through an oven. The oven is constructed with a first zone of infrared burners directed at the mid body of the bottles and a succeeding second zone of infrared burners in upper and lower placement are directed at the neck and heel portions of the bottle, respectively. During travel past the burners, the bottles and sleeves are rotated at controlled speed to prevent collapse of the sleeve as it becomes heated. Opposite the burners is an exhaust section of the oven having plural sets of damper means, each set controlling air flow in plural vertically spaced horizontal rows of exhaust ports along the length of the oven. Air is drawn across the oven and over the conveyor chucks to aid directing heat on the sleeves and cool the chucks.

Abstract: A tunnel oven for bakery purposes has a plurality of horizontally- and vertically-spaced hot air supply orifices in each of its vertical walls. At least some and preferably all such orifices are individually adjustable slots. Each wall also has air extraction orifices connected to suitable ducting.

Abstract: An apparatus for drying ceramic bodies in which a framework of horizontal pipes and spacer bars define vertical columns beneath which a platform is disposed. The drying medium is circulated through the chamber containing the rack and through the pipes of the rack which have outlets for the cooling medium therealong. The ceramic bodies are stacked on the platform and the stacks are held pneumatically when the platform is lowered to remove the bottom article from each stack, additional articles being fed to the stack from the top. Plates on opposite sides of the stack are shifted back and forth by a crank arrangement to impart a quasi-sinusoidal movement to the gases around the bodies in the stacks.

Abstract: A curing oven for impregnated mineral wool in the shape of mats comprises a pair of endless cooperating conveyors facing each other and being arranged in a housing, and on either side of the cooperating parts of conveyors several pressure -- and evacuation chambers are located for feeding hot air through the mat. The pressure -- and evacuation chambers are arranged in such a way that the air can be brought in mutually reverse directions through the mat, and they are designed with a decreasing cross sectional area in the direction away from the induction -- and evacuation ports. The interior spaces of the housing located outside the pressure -- and evacuation chambers are kept at a lower pressure than the ambient pressure by a pump unit.

Abstract: The present invention regards an automatic plant to perform continuously and with high yields on an industrial scale, the drying and single-phase firing operations on ceramic tiles used for wall-lining and floor-lining, which comprises an assembly of the type commonly called "tunnel kiln", along the length of which the semifinished products to be treated travel, and is associated with suitable heat sources, so as to establish in the environment defined by the tunnel or gallery of the kiln, the thermal conditions necessary for the development and completion of firing of the tile body as well as of the surface layer of the glaze.

Abstract: A multiple stage oven for heating a product such as carpet or the like, which serially moves through each stage to be heated. Each stage of the oven includes a fuel burner for heating air within the stage, and a fan for recirculating the heated air in the stage for impingement onto a carpet product moving through the stage. A portion of the heated air within each stage is drawn from that stage and supplied to a serially preceding stage. The volume of air withdrawn from the last stage in the serial arrangement, and also the volume of make-up air admitted to the first stage thereof, does not exceed the sum of the fuel combustion products within the zones and any moisture or other substance evaporated or evolved from the carpet in each of the heating zones.

Abstract: Tunnel kiln preheat and firing section arrangement. The firing section includes a plurality of excess air burners based along each side thereof and a plurality of exhaust ports disposed between adjacent burners. The hot combustion products from the burners plus entrained air are directed upward through damper controlled slots disposed adjacent the walls of the kiln firing section. The hot gases stream upward along the kiln wall, over along the kiln roof, downward and through the stacks of ware to be fired and then are drawn upward again with the stream of burner combustion products so as to form a powerful current of recirculating hot gases which provides a uniform firing temperature throughout the stacks of ware to be processed. The preheat section uses the hot gases exhausted from the firing section, such gases being introduced at the bottom, circulated upward, in the same manner and with the same effect as the gases in the firing section.

Abstract: An oven for drying an applied coating material having volatile properties characterized by an arrangement of components which minimize the effects of air pollution and, at the same time, satisfies governmental regulations in this regard.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for removing moisture from textile products which are sufficiently porous to permit a substantial flow of heated fluid through the product. Two separate drying regions are provided through which a web of textile product is serially moved. The textile product divides each drying region into a pair of drying zones, and a differential pressure of heated air is maintained on opposite sides of the textile product in each of the heating regions to maintain a flow of heated air through the textile product. The wet textile product first passes through an initial heating region for flowthrough exposure to air heated to a temperature exceeding the temperature at which the dry textile product is damaged, for evaporation of unbound moisture without damaging the textile product. The textile product then passes through a subsequent heating region for flow-through exposure to recirculating air at a temperature which is nondamaging to the textile product.

Abstract: A system for controlling the operation of a multiple hearth furnace over a diverse range of operating conditions at a minimum level of energy consumption. Relatively low temperature gases are controllably recirculated from the drying zone to the combustion zone of the furnace, and/or gases are controllably discharged from the combustion zone and/or drying zone to regulate drying zone temperature, combustion zone temperature and the quantity of excess air required to provide optimum furnace operating conditions. The system is particularly useful for controlling the incineration in a multiple hearth furnace of sludge from waste water treatment plants.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for removing moisture from textile products which are sufficiently porous to permit a substantial flow of heated fluid through the product. Two separate drying regions are provided through which a web of textile product is serially moved. The textile product divides each drying region into a pair of drying zones, and a differential pressure of heated air is maintained on opposite sides of the textile product in each of the heating regions to maintain a flow of heated air through the textile product. The wet textile product first passes through an initial heating region for flowthrough exposure to air heated to a temperature exceeding the temperature at which the dry textile product is damaged, for evaporation of unbound moisture without damaging the textile product. The textile product then passes through a subsequent heating region for flow-through exposure to recirculating air at a temperature which is nondamaging to the textile product.

Abstract: The present invention concerns a method and an installation for the stoving of articles, inter alia of freshly painted articles. A combustion is used to eliminate a substantial proportion of the polluting and solvent-charged products given off by the articles during stoving and entrained by the ventilating air which is evacuated from the stove. The purified and heated gas supplied by the combustion of the polluting products is reintroduced into the stove, with fresh air. Before combustion, the ventilation air is preheated in a heat exchanger whose source of heat is supplied with heat by said purified and heated gas.

Abstract: A method of controlling the heating gases in a kiln having a firing zone and at least one adjacent zone which, for example, may be a preheating zone and/or an after-heating zone, comprises directing combustion products into the firing zone to generate high temperature gases therein and withdrawing a portion of the gases generated after giving up some of the heat in the firing zone upwardly through an exhaust gas flue and sensing the temperature in at least one select location in said kiln and regulating the quantity of gases withdrawn in accordance with the temperature which is sensed. The kiln advantageously includes a preheating zone before the firing zone and an afterheating zone thereafter arranged in a straight line. Burners are arranged to fire downwardly in the firing zone and all of the zones are connected to discharge through a flue.

Abstract: An apparatus for sterilization of fluid in sealed containers such as ampoules, the apparatus has a chamber provided with a hot air distributor therein, a magazine conveyor comprising a drum mounted to be rotable about its vertical axis in said chamber having compartment defining means thereon defining a plurality of vertically stacked tiers of compartments for accomodation and transportation of containers to be treated, said chamber having a plurality of bottom walls fixedly mounted therein one being associated with each tier of compartments and constituting the bottoms of said compartments each bottom wall having a gap therein, the gaps being at different circumferential positions, the gaps being for transferring containers inserted and carried in compartments automatically one after the other to the next adjacent lower tier at said positions, one wall of each compartment permitting passage of air therethrough and apparatus for supply and removal of containers to be treated to and from said magazine conveyor

Abstract: Small articles such as springs are heat treated as they flow downward by gravity through a straight cylindrical tube. The tube need not be cylindrical or straight and means to assist gravity may be provided. The articles are heated by hot air or other gas introduced to said tube through apertures in its walls and which flows through portions of the tube at high velocity. Hot air thus introduced is withdrawn through other apertures in the walls of the tube in a manner to prevent heat loss by exhaust of the hot air at either end of the tube or by introduction into the tube of ambient cool air at either end of the tube.

Abstract: A semiconductor wafer baking and handling system includes a pair of wheel assemblies each comprising a pair of spaced apart plates having opposed, aligned slots formed therein for receiving and supporting semiconductor wafers. A wafer transporting air track includes portions extending between the plates of both of the wheel assemblies. The wheel assemblies are rotated about axes lying substantially in the plane of and extending perpendicularly to the path of wafer travel along the air track to sequentially position the slots to receive semiconductor wafers, to rotate the received semiconductor wafers through an arc of 180.degree., and to subsequently sequentially position the slots to effect removal of the semiconductor wafers. One of the wheel assemblies is mounted in a housing which also encloses a heater, a fan, and baffles for directing gas from the fan across the heater and across the wafers to effect baking of the wafers.

Abstract: An oven for heating tubular parisons to a target or orientation temperature. A first plenum on one side of the oven and a second plenum on the opposite side of the oven, both exhaust to a common chamber disposed therebetween. The parisons are heated by a high velocity fluid above the target temperature in the zone defined by the first plenum and the chamber and the parisons are tempered by a lower velocity fluid at the target temperature in the zone defined by the second plenum and the chamber.