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:
Mar. 16, 1999
Filed:
Jun. 19, 1998
Alain Cloarec, Longjumeau, FR;
Abstract
A method of in-line surface-hardening of products is provided. In the process, the products are introduced into a chamber with at least one conveyor. The chamber includes a frigorie transfer means for surface-hardening the products. A surface hardened product is extracted from the chamber upon receipt of a product request signal emitted by a preparation unit located downstream of the device. The at least one conveyor is controlled to, upon receiving the product request signal, extract from the chamber the surface-hardened product which has resided longest in the chamber and, substantially at the same time, introducing into the chamber a new product to be surface hardened. The frigorie transfer means is controlled so as to control the quantity of frigories to be transferred to the products present in the chamber per unit time as a function of at least one elapsed period between two successive times at which preceding request signals from the preparation unit were received.