The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 19, 1993
Filed:
Dec. 05, 1990
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Hydro Quebec, Montreal, CA;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H05H / ; B23K / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
21912139 ; 21912159 ; 266271 ; 266 45 ; 266 67 ; 373166 ;
Abstract
A water-cooled plasma torch specially designed to drill into a refractory material is used in a method for opening a tap hole closed by a plug in a wall of a furnace. This method which is particularly well adapted for robotization, includes the step of melting and breaking up the plug closing the tap hole by means of a jet of swirling gas of high speed and high temperature, generated by the plasma torch. The main advantage of this method is that the stream of plasma gas leaving the torch has a well defined outline ensuring precise and reproducible tapping of the plug and, as a result, efficient closing of the tap hole with a new plug after the furnace has been emptied.