JP5454935B2 - Continuous heat treatment furnace - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a continuous heat treatment furnace for continuously heat-treating a plate-shaped object to be processed.

  In the production of functional oxide thin films represented by solar cells, conductive oxides, high-temperature superconducting materials, etc., heat treatment in the air or in a controlled atmosphere is essential, and various conventional heat treatment apparatuses are available. Has been proposed. The heat treatment furnaces are generally divided into two types, batch type and continuous type, depending on the system, but when mass-producing products subject to heat treatment, the products are continuously put into the furnace without opening the atmosphere and temperature. It is more efficient to use a continuous type that can carry in and out. Actually, a continuous heat treatment furnace (see Patent Document 1) has been put into practical use and is used for heat treatment of automobile parts and the like.

FIG. 5 is a front sectional view showing a conventional general continuous heat treatment apparatus.
The heat treatment apparatus has a heat treatment furnace 21, and a heater 22 is disposed inside the heat treatment furnace 21. At both ends of the heat treatment furnace 21 in the longitudinal direction, a carry-in entrance 23 and a carry-out exit (not shown) are provided. In the heat treatment furnace 21, a transfer conveyor 24 is provided that extends to both sides of the heat treatment furnace 21 through the carry-in entrance 23 and the carry-out exit, and the workpiece 25 is carried by the carry conveyor 24.
In the heat treatment furnace 21, the workpiece 25 is carried into the furnace from the outside of the heat treatment furnace 21 by the transport conveyor 24, transported by the transport conveyor 24, and unloaded from the transport port to the outside of the furnace. At this time, the inside of the heat treatment furnace 21 is heated by the heater 22, and the workpiece 25 entering the furnace is heated during conveyance to perform heat treatment. Thereby, it becomes possible to heat-process the to-be-processed object 25 continuously.

JP 2007-120894 A

  By the way, the conventional continuous heat treatment apparatus described above is suitable for the heat treatment time being relatively short because the heat treatment is performed while the workpiece is being conveyed, and is not suitable for the heat treatment time being long. . For example, in order to increase the residence time in the furnace and lengthen the heat treatment time, the length of the heat treatment furnace must be increased accordingly, and the apparatus becomes large. In addition, the residence time can be increased by slowing the conveying speed, but there is a problem that the amount of the object to be processed per hour is reduced and the processing efficiency is deteriorated.

  The present invention has been made against the background of the above circumstances, and is a continuous heat treatment furnace capable of treating a large amount of an object even during a relatively long heat treatment without significantly increasing the length of the heat treatment furnace. The purpose is to provide.

That is, of the continuous heat treatment furnace of the present invention, a first aspect of the present invention, successively to the plate-shaped object to be processed or plate object to be processed an object to be processed distribution table to be laterally outside the furnace from the furnace which carries, A carry-in section to carry in;
A vertical transport path for transporting upward in the furnace while holding the plate-shaped workpieces carried into the furnace in order and receiving them in a multi-stage in a horizontal state;
An unloading unit that sequentially receives the plate-like object to be heat-treated while being conveyed by the upper-lower conveying path at an upper position in the conveying direction and sequentially unloads the processing chamber;
The vertical width direction end sides of the transport path, a plurality of sets of retaining fork having a smaller distance than the width of the width or the processed Monohai table of the object,
The carry-in portion is formed of a conveyor that is smaller than the interval between the holding forks and has a tip positioned between the tracks of the holding forks.

According to 1st this invention, the plate-shaped to-be-processed object sequentially carried in in the furnace is conveyed upward , hold | maintained in the multi-stage upwardly in the state where it was laid down. At this time, since the height of the plate-like object to be processed is sufficiently small compared to the width of the material, more objects to be processed can be obtained than in the case of a horizontal continuous heat treatment furnace that performs heat treatment while being conveyed in the horizontal direction. Heat treatment can be performed while being conveyed, and the heat treatment time can be extended without lengthening the heat treatment furnace or reducing the amount of treatment. In the present invention, the heat treatment time can be lengthened by shortening the conveyance time in the vertical direction, but the carrying-in and carrying-out speeds can be made similar to the conventional one.

  In the continuous heat treatment furnace according to the second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the upper and lower transport paths have an endless belt that rotates in the transport direction, and a plurality of the endless belts are spaced apart in the circumferential direction. The to-be-processed object holding | maintenance part is provided.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the upper and lower conveyance paths are circulated and rotated by the endless belt, and are successively conveyed and heat-treated by the workpiece holding portions provided on the endless belt. As a result, the size of the furnace can be made more compact. In addition, although the space | interval between to-be-processed object holding | maintenance parts is not specifically limited as this invention, It is desirable to make it as small as possible in the distance which does not have trouble in heat processing, carrying in, and carrying out. Thereby, a larger number of objects to be processed can be heat-treated at the same time.

  A continuous heat treatment furnace according to a third aspect of the present invention is the first or second aspect of the present invention, wherein the plurality of plate-like objects to be processed are arranged in parallel, and the carry-in, transfer, and carry-out with the plate-like objects to be processed is performed. It has the to-be-processed object arrangement | positioning table | surface where this is performed.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, a plurality of small-sized plate-like objects to be processed can be heat-treated in parallel to improve the processing efficiency.

As described above, according to the continuous heat treatment furnace of the present invention, sequentially carried into the plate-shaped object to be processed or plate object to be processed an object to be processed distribution table to be laterally outside the furnace from the furnace which carries A carry-in part;
A vertical transport path for transporting upward in the furnace while holding the plate-shaped workpieces carried into the furnace in order and receiving them in a multi-stage in a horizontal state;
An unloading unit that sequentially receives the plate-like object to be heat-treated while being conveyed by the upper-lower conveying path at an upper position in the conveying direction and sequentially unloads the processing chamber;
The vertical width direction end sides of the transport path, a plurality of sets of retaining fork having a smaller distance than the width of the width or the processed Monohai table of the object,
The carrying-in portion is smaller than the interval between the holding forks, and is composed of a conveyor whose tip is positioned between the trajectories of the holding forks, so that the length of the heat treatment furnace is not increased, and the outside of the heat treatment furnace A relatively long heat treatment can be performed on a large number of plate-like objects without slowing the transfer speed.

It is a front sectional view showing an outline of a continuous heat treatment furnace of one embodiment of the present invention. Similarly, it is a top view explaining the delivery conveyance of a plate-shaped workpiece. Similarly, it is a top view explaining taking-out conveyance of a plate-shaped workpiece. It is a perspective view which similarly shows the example of the to-be-processed object heat-processed. It is front sectional drawing which shows a part of conventional continuous heat processing apparatus.

(Embodiment 1)
Below, one Embodiment of the continuous-type heat processing furnace of this invention is described based on FIGS. 1-3.
The continuous heat treatment furnace 1 is provided with a carry-in port 3 on the lower side of the furnace wall 2 and a carry-out port 4 on the upper side, and each is provided on the same side surface side.
A carry-in conveyor 15 for carrying in the workpiece from the outside of the furnace to the inside of the furnace is arranged at the carry-in port 3, and a carry-out conveyor for carrying out the workpiece from the inside of the furnace to the outside of the furnace is arranged at the carry-out port 4. A conveyor 16 is disposed. The carry-in conveyor 15 and the carry-out conveyor 16 are configured to have a width smaller than the width of the plate-like object 100 to be carried in / out. The carry-in conveyor 15 corresponds to the carry-in part of the present invention, and the carry-out conveyor 16 corresponds to the carry-out part of the present invention.
In this embodiment, the plate-like object 100 is constituted by a substrate on which a functional oxide thin film is formed. However, in the present invention, the type of the plate-like workpiece is not limited to this, and various plate-like workpieces can be targeted. Moreover, if it is plate shape, the size and thickness will not be specifically limited.

  In the furnace on the transfer front end side of the carry-in conveyor 15, an in-furnace transfer means 5 corresponding to the vertical transfer path of the present invention is arranged. The in-furnace conveying means 5 is provided with an endless belt 8 so as to be bridged between an upper roller 6 and a lower roller 7 arranged in a vertical position, and the lower roller 7 is near the height position of the carry-in conveyor 15. The upper roller 6 is in the vicinity of the height position of the carry-out conveyor 16. In this embodiment, the endless belt is stretched between the rollers in the vertical position, so that the endless belt rotates in the vertical direction. However, the present invention requires vertical rotation. Instead, any material can be used as long as it can transport the plate-like workpiece vertically.

The endless belt 8 is positioned such that the belt surface on one side faces the transfer front end side of the carry-in conveyor 15 and rotates so that the belt surface facing the carry-in conveyor 15 moves upward (see FIG. 1). Driven counterclockwise).
Further, holding forks 9a and 9b are provided on the belt surface of the endless belt 8 so as to protrude at intervals in the lateral direction. The holding forks 9a and 9b have a smaller interval than the width of the object to be conveyed and a larger interval than the width of the carry-in conveyor 15, and the rotation of the endless belt 8 causes the carry-in conveyor 15 to move. It is located so as to pass through both sides.
A plurality of sets of the holding forks 9 a and 9 b are provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the endless belt 8.

Further, on the upper side of the in-furnace transport means 5, the rear end of the carry-out conveyor 16 is positioned so as to face the vicinity of the rotation area of the holding forks 9 a and 9 b, and faces the carry-in conveyor 15. One side of the endless belt 8 faces the rear end of the carry-out conveyor 16.
In addition, a workpiece extraction unit 10 is disposed above the in-furnace transport unit 5. The processing object take-out portion 10 has a take-out belt 11 that rotates in the same direction as the endless belt 8 (counterclockwise in FIG. 1). A plurality of workpiece extrusion plates 12 projecting outwardly from the surface of the take-out belt 11 are provided at equal intervals in the circumferential direction. The workpiece extrusion plate 12 has a width smaller than the distance between the holding forks 9a and 9b, and can rotate without interfering with the holding forks 9a and 9b. The workpiece push-out plate 12 pushes the plate-like workpiece 100 held and conveyed by the holding forks 9a and 9b from the rear side to the carry-out conveyor 16 side to carry out the carry-out conveyor from the holding forks 9a and 9b. 16 is handed over.

Next, the operation of the continuous heat treatment furnace 1 will be described.
The plate-like object 100 is placed on the carry-in conveyor 15 in a horizontal state (horizontal state in this embodiment), and is sequentially carried from the outside of the furnace into the continuous heat treatment furnace 1. At this time, as shown in the above description and FIG. 2A, the width of the carry-in conveyor 15 is narrower than the width of the plate-like object 100, and both side surfaces of the plate-like object 100 are in the width direction. It is conveyed on the carry-in conveyor 15 in a protruding state. The plate-like workpiece 100 carried into the furnace is supported on both sides of the lower surface by holding forks 9a and 9b rotated by the endless belt 8 at the front end side of the carry-in conveyor 15, and transferred and conveyed in the same posture. As the endless belt 8 rotates, it is conveyed upward.
Each holding fork 9a, 9b is provided in the circumferential direction so that each set exceeds the thickness of the plate-like workpiece 100 and does not interfere with the heat treatment of each plate-like workpiece. The gap is considerably smaller than the carry-in interval in the carry-in conveyor 15 and can be processed without slowing the carry pitch of the carry-in conveyor even if the rotation speed of the endless belt 8 is considerably slowed. it can.
The plate-shaped workpiece 100 can be satisfactorily heat-treated over a long time by being slowly lifted by the endless belt 8 while being held by the holding forks 9a and 9b.

When the plate-like workpiece 100 held by the holding forks 9a, 9b is transported to the upper end side of the in-furnace transport means 5, it is transferred to the unloading conveyor 16 by the workpiece removal section 10. That is, in the workpiece extraction unit 10, the extraction belt 11 rotates counterclockwise in the drawing, and the workpiece extrusion plate 12 protruding from the extraction belt 11 is carried out on the lower surface side of the extraction belt 11. It moves to the conveyor 16 side, pushes the plate-like object 100 forward from the rear surface side of the plate-like object 100 rising, takes it out onto the carry-out conveyor 16 and conveys it. The plate-like object 100 moved onto the carry-out conveyor 16 is carried out of the furnace on the same side as the side on which the plate-like object 100 is carried by the carry-out conveyor 16.
In the above embodiment, the plate-like object to be heat-treated is carried out on the same side as the side on which the plate-like object is carried, but it is carried out on the side opposite to the carry-in side. Also good.
In the above-described embodiment, the plate-like object is loaded from the lower side of the heat treatment furnace and is carried out from the upper side of the heat treatment furnace. Conversely, the plate-like object is treated from the upper side of the heat treatment furnace. It is good also as what carries in a thing, conveys a plate-shaped to-be-processed object below by a vertical conveyance path, and carries it out from the downward side of a heat treatment furnace. Further, the plate-like object to be processed may be carried in from the lower side or the upper side of the heat treatment furnace, conveyed in both the upper and lower directions, and carried out from the lower side or the upper side, which is the same side as the loading.
Further, the vertical transport path is not limited to the in-furnace transport means having the above-described configuration, and transports upward or downward in the furnace while holding the plate-like workpiece in a multi-stage in the vertical direction. Anything is possible.

  Next, in the above embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 4A, the plate-like object 100 is described as being conveyed one by one. However, a plurality of plate-like objects to be processed are conveyed at a time. It is also possible to do. In this case, as shown in FIG. 4B, a plurality of plate-like objects 110 are placed on the heat-resistant object tray 120, and a plurality of plate-like objects to be processed together with the object tray 120. Can be conveyed and heat-treated. The object tray 120 corresponds to the object arrangement table of the present invention.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated based on the said embodiment, this invention is not limited to the content of the said description, As long as it does not deviate from the range of this invention, an appropriate change is possible.

Heat treatment was performed under the following conditions using the continuous heat treatment furnace shown in FIG.
a) Plate-shaped workpiece material size: width 500 mm x length 500 mm x thickness 1 mm
b) Heat treatment conditions: In the atmosphere 500 ° C./2 hours (including temperature rise time)
c) Moving speed of carry-in conveyor: 510 mm / min d) Material interval during loading: 10 mm, carrying into the furnace every other minute e) Lifting moving speed of in-furnace transport means: 10 mm / min f) Inside the furnace Vertical distance between the holding forks of the transport means: 10 mm

  When transporting and heat-treating the plate-like object under the above conditions, the height of the transport means in the furnace is approximately 10 mm / min × 120 minutes = 1.2 m, and in the furnace, 1 hour in the heat treatment for 2 hours. It was possible to heat treat 60 materials per piece.

(Comparative Example 1)
Heat treatment was performed under the following conditions using a conventional horizontal continuous heat treatment furnace shown in FIG.
a) Material size: width 500 mm x length 500 mm x thickness 1 mm
b) Heat treatment conditions: In the atmosphere 500 ° C./2 hours (including temperature rise time)
c) Moving speed of transfer conveyor: 510 mm / min d) Material interval when loading into the furnace: 10 mm and loading into the furnace every other minute

  In this heat treatment furnace, it is necessary to set the length of the furnace to 510 mm / min × 120 minutes = 61.2 m in order to obtain the same processing capacity as the above-described invention example (heat treatment of 60 materials per hour). Therefore, the entire length of the furnace becomes very long and the manufacturing cost becomes expensive.

(Comparative Example 2)
Heat treatment was performed under the following conditions using a conventional horizontal continuous heat treatment furnace shown in FIG.
a) Material size: width 500 mm x length 500 mm x thickness 1 mm
b) Heat treatment conditions: In the atmosphere 500 ° C./2 hours (including temperature rise time)
c) Moving speed of transfer conveyor: 110 mm / min d) Material interval when loading into the furnace: 10 mm and loading into the furnace every other minute

  At this time, by setting the length of the horizontal continuous heat treatment furnace to 110 mm / min × 120 minutes = 13.2 m, the heat treatment time described above can be secured, and the length of the furnace is shorter than that of Comparative Example 1. The heat treatment capacity is 13 per hour, and the treatment capacity is significantly inferior.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Continuous-type heat treatment furnace 5 In-furnace conveyance means 8 Endless belt 9a Holding fork 9b Holding fork 10 Unloading part 11 Unloading belt 12 Unloading belt 12 Unloading conveyor 16 Unloading conveyor 16 Unloading conveyor 100 Plate-shaped process object

Claims (3)

A loading unit for plate-shaped object to be processed or plate object to be processed an object to be processed distribution table sequentially and laterally from outside the furnace into a furnace loaded, loading,
A vertical transport path for transporting upward in the furnace while holding the plate-shaped workpieces carried into the furnace in order and receiving them in a multi-stage in a horizontal state;
An unloading unit that sequentially receives the plate-like object to be heat-treated while being conveyed by the upper-lower conveying path at an upper position in the conveying direction and sequentially unloads the processing chamber;
The vertical width direction end sides of the transport path, a plurality of sets of retaining fork having a smaller distance than the width of the width or the processed Monohai table of the object,
The continuous heat treatment furnace is characterized in that the carry-in section includes a conveyor that is smaller than the interval between the holding forks and has a tip positioned between the tracks of the holding forks.   The said up-and-down conveyance path has an endless belt which rotates in a conveyance direction, The several to-be-processed object holding part is provided in this endless belt at intervals in the circumferential direction. Continuous heat treatment furnace.   The plurality of plate-like objects to be processed are arranged in parallel, and the object-to-be-processed placement table is provided, wherein the loading, carrying, and unloading are performed together with the plate-like objects to be processed. Continuous heat treatment furnace.

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