Abstract: In a continuous heating furnace, particularly in a preheating chamber thereof, forced heat convections of an atmosphere gas are produced to heat articles rapidly. The convections which circulate transversely to a longitudinal axis of the furnace, retard an axial flow of the atmosphere gas. This retardation is lassened by having the convections flown portionally as branch streams toward an intake opening of the furnace by means of novel baffle plate or vane means which are provided in the preheating chamber so as to be outside a moving path of articles through the chamber and within circulating paths of convections.

Abstract: A vacuum valve maintaining the simplicity of operation and reliability of a glass stopcock for large bore, low impedance vacuum procedures, such as continuous freeze drying. A rigid inner member, with friction reducing raised circumferential and longitudinal portions, is rotated within a clear elastomeric outer member to provide various vacuum connections.

Abstract: An ingot pusher furnace includes a horizontal baffle assembly suspended from a frame member located above a furnace top wall. The baffle assembly includes of a center portion and a pair of first and second upwardly sloping end portions connected to the center portion. The center portion is positioned substantially parallel to an upper surface of a center portion of the ingot. A first upper horizontal baffle is connected by a first gusset to the first sloping end portion. The first upper baffle is positioned substantially parallel to and above a first end portion of the ingot. A second upper horizontal baffle is connected by a second gusset to the second sloping end portion. The second upper baffle is positioned substantially parallel to and above a second end portion of the ingot.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method of and a walking beam furnace for the intermediate heating of pipes, or the like, in hot rolling mills, by means of a furnace located between the plug-mill and the sizing mill. According to the invention, in a forehearth (17) of the intermediate heating furnace, at the inlet side thereof, there is maintained a temperature which is lower than that at the outlet side, and which, anyway, is such that the hottest pipes will be cooled down and the coldest pipes will be heated up whereby, when exiting from said forehearth (17) of the furnace, the difference between the temperatures of the various pipes is zero or, at least, is small and, in any case, is smaller than that at the inlet, whereas in the successive chamber (18) of the furnace there is maintained such a temperature as to give the pipes the desired temperature when exiting from the furnace.

Abstract: Tendrillar carbonaceous material is used as a fluidization aid for fluidizing cohesive materials in fluidized beds. The tendrillar carbonaceous material can be a fibrous, particulate carbonaceous material comprising carbon fibers and a ferrous group metal component dispersed throughout the carbon fibers as nodules. The tendrillar carbonaceous material has a bulk density of from about 0.04 to about 0.7 g/cm.sup.3 and comprises an agglomeration of tendrils having a diameter of from about 0.01 to about 1 micron and a length to diameter ratio of from about 5:1 to about 1000:1.

Abstract: An apparatus for the thermal removal of lacquer and like coating materials from metal and ceramic objects comprises a fluidized-bed retort which is partly heated by a burner in a burner chamber. Combustibles in the retort gases are recycled to an afterburner chamber for combustion to provide additional heating for the retort. The bottom of the retort is provided with a layer of refractory heat-storage material which serves as a thermal buffer leveling the heating of the interior of the retort.

Abstract: A spiral track oven has a heated spiral track on which semiconductor chip bases move. A jarring motion about the central axis of the track supplies inertia to the bases, moving them down the track. A blanket-like laminated heater on the inside of the track supplies heat to the bases. Excess heat is vented by positive airflow out a vent. A perforated screen-like shroud wrapped around the outside of the track keeps the bases from falling off the track while allowing excess heat to escape. A pneumatic or hydraulic drive shaft extends through a table to the base of the oven where it is mounted. The drive and driveshaft turn the oven back and forth about a central shaft gently in one direction and in a jarring motion in the other, thereby supplying inertia to the bases.

Abstract: A vapor delivery system for the manufacture of an optical preform includes a deposition bubbler (60) and another bubbler (40) referred to as a supply bubbler which is interposed between a reservoir (24) of a liquid and the deposition bubbler. Heat energy is applied to the supply bubbler and to the deposition bubbler to vaporize liquid therein. A carrier gas is introduced into the liquid in the supply bubbler at a location below the free surface and into the deposition bubbler to cause vapor of the liquid to become entrained in the carrier gas and to flow from the supply bubbler into the deposition bubbler and from the deposition bubbler to a substrate tube from which an optical preform is made. Facilities are provided for maintaining sufficient liquid in the supply bubbler and suitable temperatures of the liquid in the supply and deposition bubblers to control the vapor flow into and out of the deposition bubbler to prevent unintended perturbations in the deposition bubbler.

Abstract: The moist ores are dried in direct contact with hot dry tail gas from a contact process plant for producing sulfuric acid. The dried ores are roasted, the SO.sub.2 -containing gases produced by the roasting are processed in the contact process plant to produce sulfuric acid, and the tail gases from the contact process plant are heated up with surplus heat from the contact process plant. These heated tail gases are used to dry the moist ores.

Abstract: First and second arrays of alternately fixed and mobile, transversely spaced, elongated fire dogs are arranged in a furnace for heating iron and steel products, the fire dogs lying parallel to the longitudinal axis thereof, the second array being transversely offset from the first array, whereby the fixed fire dogs of the first array extend therebeyond substantially to a line common with the ends of the fixed fire dogs of the second array, the mobile fire dogs of the second array extending therebeyond and overlapping the extended portions of the fixed fire dogs of the first array, one of the mobile fire dogs of each array lying midway between the fixed fire dogs thereof, and one of the fixed fire dogs of each array lying midway between the mobile fire dogs thereof.

Abstract: A supporting and guiding means comprises a centrally disposed support column (6) at the upper end of which at least one slide tube (1) is secured paraxially. A holding and guiding device (2) is arranged on said slide tube and retaining plates (4) act at the ends of said device, the retaining plates (4) engaging in the upper open end of at least two insulators or similar elongated ceramic articles (7) arranged outside of the support column and, upon shrinking of the insulators (7), following the shrinking movement in axial direction while, at the same time, holding and guiding the insulators (7).

Abstract: A top-fired, lifting or walking, hearth-type furnace includes an upstream preheating zone and a downstream primary heating zone. Stock, such as billets or ingots, to be heated is passed sequentially through the preheating zone and primary heating zone. Each zone has therein support members for supporting the stock. The support members of the preheating zone are at a level higher than the support members of the primary heating zone, with a step therebetween, whereby hot flue gases in the preheating zone circulate upwardly around the support members therein and the stock supported thereby. A lowering and lifting apparatus is located at the step to transfer stock from the support members of the preheating zone to the support members of the primary heating zone.

Abstract: A conveyor has successive mutually spaced driven rollers in which hot rolled steel rod is transported in the form of overlapping offset rings. The rings are rapidly air cooled by first nozzles which direct first jets of cooling air upwardly to impinge against and to flow around the conveyor rollers, and by second nozzles which direct second jets of cooling air upwardly between the rollers. The first and and second jets of cooling air produce respective first and second velocity profiles, each having an average velocity. The arrangement of the first and second nozzles in relation to each other and to the conveyor rollers is such that the velocity profiles of the first and second jets are superimposed one over the other to produce a broader combined velocity profile having an average velocity greater than that of either the first or second velocity profiles.

Abstract: Apparatus for heating a plastic pipe 18 or the like comprises a body portion having inner and outer parts 1,2 defining therebetween an annular cavity 3 which receives the end of the pipe. In use of the apparatus, hot fluid is pumped through the cavity 3 via flow passages 7-11 whereby to heat the pipe 18 sufficiently e.g. for moulding purposes. The fluid is prevented from escaping from the open end of the cavity 3 by means of compressed air supplied via ports 15.

Abstract: A kiln producing a uniform temperature distribution within the kiln heating chamber and enabling maximum use of heating chamber volume. The heat source is provided by a high-velocity flow of heating gas, which is introduced into the heating chamber through an orifice in a chamber wall. A deflector plate is positioned proximate to, and spaced apart from, the chamber wall so as to overlie the orifice in the path of the high-velocity flow. The dimensions and spacing of the deflector plate may be chosen so as to produce a flow of heat gas primarily parallel to the adjacent wall of the heating chamber and so that the parallel flow will maintain its substantial integrity along the wall much beyond the extremities of the deflector plate. Appropriately positioned gas-entrance ports with associated deflector plates in the kiln are found to produce a uniform temperature distribution without the sacrifice of otherwise usable heating chamber volume.

Abstract: A cover for a top charged melting furnace includes an annular ring of downwardly extending blocks or modules of ceramic fiber insulating material. A plurality of T-bar anchors cooperate with the blocks to provide an anchor system for the annular ring. This anchor system allows the ring's attachment to the cover to be tightened in compensation for heat and compressionally related block size reductions. The anchoring system prevents the ring of blocks from sagging during cover elevation while not interfering with upward movement of the blocks during cover positioning on the furnace. The annular ring of blocks protects the main portion of the cover's insulation from damage and any damaged blocks in the ring are readily replaceable.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and apparatus for the heat treatment of fine-grained material wherein a precalcination zone formed by the kiln exhaust gas duct of a rotary kiln and into which two branch streams of cooling air which have been subjected to opposing rotational flow are introduced. In this way an equalization of the speed profile over the cross-section of the kiln exhaust gas duct and an improvement in the burning up of the fuel is achieved.

Abstract: This invention is directed to a method and an apparatus to heat certain particles. These certain particles are heated to make them more desirable. In the heating of these particles, it is often desirable to expand the particles to make a light-weight aggregate. The light-weight aggregate may be used in making a building material or the like. In carrying out the process of heating these particles, there is used air for combustion of the combustible fuel and only a mimimum of air for carrying of the particles or expansion of the particles.

Abstract: The process includes entraining a powder having an average particle size in the range of 1 micron to 1.0 mm in air within a mixing vessel and spraying the entrained powder with a liquid within a spray zone in the mixing vessel. The process is used especially for a throughput rate in the range of 20 to 100 kg/hour of powder. The apparatus for carrying out the process includes a mixing vessel (2) accommodating an axially aligned venturi device (22) and a spray nozzle (18). The mixing vessel (2) may be connected to a vibratory fluidized bed chamber (28) for collecting the sprayed powder.

Abstract: The present invention is a device for bringing integrated circuit devices (22), to be tested at a test site, to a temperature to which the devices (22) will be subjected during operating conditions of equipments in which they will ultimately be installed. The device includes a rack (30) comprising a plurality of rails (32) overlying corresponding tracks (24) down which the integrated circuits (22) move through a magazine (20). The rails (32) are adjustable toward and away from their corresponding tracks (24), and both are heated in order to impart thermal energy to integrated circuit devices (22) passing down the tracks (24). Each track (24) has, proximate a lower end thereof, a singulation assembly (56) which not only isolates a single device (22) to be passed to a test site, but also functions to press the lowermost device (22) in a string passing down the respective track (24) into close engagement with the track (24) in order to effect maximum heat transfer.