Holcroft & Company

Thermo Electron Corporation

Leonard G Nowak

Paul K Shefsiek

Maurice Nunes

Gabor Miskolczy

Charles Lippert

A high temperature furnace chamber includes a roller hearth for supporting and transporting workpieces to be heated. The rollers are supported at each end by a rotary sleeve having an inner diameter larger than the outer diameter of the rollers. Rotary movement of the sleeves transmits rotational forces to the rollers. Clearance provided between the rollers and the sleeves allows for roller dimensional variation during various furnace operating conditions.

Roller hearth furnace

A crucible furnace for high-temperature melting of metals or other materials which includes a capped vessel for serving as a crucible to hold a charge of material to be melted, a solid baffle surrounding and closely spaced from the vessel to form a restricted passageway and a refractory wall surrounding and widely spaced from the baffle to form a combustion chamber. Fuel is supplied at the base of the combustion chamber and mixed with air preheated by a compact internal recuperator operative from exhaust gases exiting the restricted passageway. The fuel is burned in the combustion chamber, heating the baffle which in turn radiates heat to the vessel containing the charge. Several of the elements forming the combustion and heat transfer system also serve as structural elements providing rigid support to internal components when the furnace is upright and when it is tilted to pour off melt. Adjacent its top, openings are formed through the baffle to permit flame and combustion products to pass from the combustion chamber downwardly through the restricted passageway and recuperator region to the exhaust flue. Thus, heating of the vessel is also had by convection. The combustion chamber is isolated from the charge in the vessel by a seal, the integrity of which is maintained by downward pressure from a lip formed on the crucible.

Crucible melting furnace

A furnace for receiving continuously advancing stock in linear array is assembled from a number of independent furnace units. In each unit, a furnace chamber surrounds the advancing stock with a radiative wall. Each chamber is fired by gas burners which surround the stock at the chamber exit. The burners include a series of gas jets which feed the fuel, with or without air, radially into the chamber toward the stock and a series of air jets which are paired with the gas jets to feed combustion air axially into the chamber.

Continuous furnace

A radiant tube burner mixes liquid fuel and/or gaseous fuel with air for combustion in a radiant tube to produce a quiet and stable luminous flame through the entire length of the radiant tube. A flame holding plate is positioned within the radiant tube to define a feed zone and a combustion zone. A liquid fuel nozzle positioned centrally in the plate directs fuel through the plate and into the combustion zone. The plate defines a series of apertures circumscribing the nozzle and another passage outward from the series of openings and concentric therewith. Combustion air is proportioned and admitted to the combustion zone through the series of openings and the passage. Gaseous fuel may be admitted to the combustion zone through the series of openings.

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Ypsilanti, MI, United States of America

Leonard G Nowak