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:
Sep. 14, 2004
Filed:
Jul. 12, 2002
Sumito Hashimoto, Kobe, JP;
Hiroshi Uemura, Kobe, JP;
Kobe Steel, Ltd., Kobe, JP;
Abstract
An annular rail is fixed on the lower surface of a moving hearth , and the rail is supported from below by support rollers provided with elevating devices . The moving hearth is continuously or intermittently moved downward by the elevating devices depending on the thickness of a metal oxide layer formed by the deposition of powder of metal oxide agglomerates mixed into the furnace together with the metal oxide agglomerates so that a gap is provided between the surface of the metal oxide layer and the edge of the blade of a discharge screw during operation. A means for preventing the formation of a metal plate and a method for operating the same are provided instead of a means and method including the vertical movement of a discharger for reduced metal, so that the maintenance work can be significantly reduced in a moving-hearth heating furnace, in which metal oxide agglomerates containing a carbonaceous material is placed on a moving hearth, the metal oxide agglomerates are heated and reduced to form reduced metal agglomerates, and the reduced metal agglomerates are discharged from the furnace by a discharger to produce reduced metal.