JPH0517475B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to a vertical pressurized atmosphere furnace.

(Prior art and its problems) Conventionally, for example, in order to construct fine ceramic parts, etc., charging and extraction purge chambers were generally provided on both sides, and a preheating chamber and a heating chamber were provided via an intermediate door. The heat treatment is performed by sequentially moving the treatment material through each of the chambers using a conveying means.

However, especially in the heating chamber, the temperature reaches as high as 2300° C., so the means for conveying the treated material within the furnace must have high heat resistance, and its selection becomes a problem.

Furthermore, when the treated material is fired in a pressurized atmosphere, there are many pressure-resistant structures including the intermediate door, which increases equipment costs. Furthermore, in recent years, there has been a lot of high-mix, small-lot production, but multi-chamber horizontal furnaces have many problems such as being unsuitable for such production.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and provides a vertical pressurized atmosphere furnace that has a simple configuration, does not expose the in-furnace conveying means to high temperatures, and can reduce the number of pressure-resistant structural parts. The purpose is to

(Means to Solve the Problems) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a vertical pressurized atmosphere furnace with a plurality of pressure-resistant structures each having an open bottom at the ceiling of a transfer chamber in which a purge chamber is connected. A processing material loading device consisting of a support stand, a hearth, and a gate valve is provided at a position corresponding to the vertical processing chamber in the transfer chamber, and this processing material loading device is supported. A lifting platform and a pressure-resistant sealing mechanism for forming a pressure-resistant seal by crimping the gate valve to the lower opening of the vertical processing chamber are provided, and the processing material placed on the support platform is transferred to the transfer chamber by multiple supports. The structure is equipped with a conveying means for transporting the

(Example) Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings which are one example.

The vertical pressurized atmosphere furnace T shown in the figure roughly consists of a charging side purge chamber 1A, an extraction side purge chamber 1B, a transfer chamber 8,
The processing chamber 11 includes a first firing chamber 12a, a second firing chamber 12b, a processing material loading device 16, a lifting table 21, and a conveying means 24.

The charging side purge chamber 1A and the extraction side purge chamber 1B
This means that horizontally sliding intermediate doors are disposed on both sides of the transfer chamber 8 via 9a and 9b.

In addition, the charging side purge chamber 1A has a charging door 2 on the top surface.
It has a charging cylinder 3 provided with a processing material mounting table 4 at the upper end at the bottom, runs on a rail 5 provided on the inner surface, and has a processing material holding part 7 at the tip. and a charging carriage 6.

The extraction side purge chamber 1B has exactly the same configuration as the above-mentioned charging side purge chamber 1A, so corresponding parts will be designated with "b" and their explanation will be omitted.

First and second firing chambers 12 which are vertical processing chambers 11
a and 12b are both provided on the ceiling of the transfer chamber 8, and are connected to the heater 13 and the heater 13 (not shown).
It has the same pressure-resistant structure equipped with _N2 gas supply means, and the lower opening 14, which is the charging/extracting port, has a
It has a clutching 15 that constitutes a pressure-resistant seal mechanism.

The processing material loading device 16 is provided in the transfer chamber 8, and includes a gate valve 17 for closing the lower openings 14 of the first and second firing chambers 1a and 12b, and a lifting cylinder 18 at the lower end. It consists of a material support stand 19 and a hearth 20, and is provided on an elevating table 21 that is raised and lowered by a ball screw 36 along a guide rod 37.

The clutch ring 15 and the gate valve 17 constitute a pressure-resistant seal mechanism. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the clutch ring 15 is attached to the lower openings 14 of the first and second firing chambers 12a and 12b so as to be rotatable by a predetermined angle, and is fitted with the gate valve 17 to operate during processing. , the lower opening 14
It is designed to have a pressure-resistant seal.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the conveyance means 24 has first and second firing chambers 12 at the bottom of the transfer chamber 8.
A trolley main body 25 that is movable on the rail 10 provided between a and 12b, and a trolley body 25 that is placed on the trolley 25 and can move forward and backward toward the lifting platform 21 side, and supports the lower surface of the processing material W at the tip from both sides. It consists of a support member 26 having a support part 27.

Note that the truck main body 25 and the support member 26
Both have driving means (not shown).

Next, a case will be described in which a ceramic product is sintered using the vertical atmosphere furnace configured as described above.

First, while raising the charging cylinder 3,
The charging door 2 is opened and the processing material W is placed on the mounting table 4 of the charging cylinder 3, and the processing material W is placed on the holding part 7 of the charging carriage 6 by lowering it to a predetermined position. .

Next, the inside of the charging purge chamber 1A is evacuated (about 10 ^-3 Torr) by means not shown, and then N ₂ gas is supplied to near atmospheric pressure to restore the pressure inside the charging purge chamber 1A.

Here, open the intermediate door 9a and set N ₂ in advance.
The charging carriage 6 is advanced into the transfer chamber 8 which has a gas atmosphere, and the processing material W is transferred to the first firing chamber 12.
Position it below a. In this state, when the support table 19 is raised by the cylinder 18 and the processing material W is transferred onto the support table 19, the charging carriage 6 returns to its original state and the intermediate door 9a is closed.

Then, the lifting table 21 is raised along the guide rod 23 by driving the ball screw 22, and the processing material W is positioned in the first firing chamber 12a, and the lower opening 14 of the firing chamber 12a is closed with the hearth 20. Moreover, the opening 14 is pressure-tightly sealed by the gate valve 17 and the clutch ring 15.

Next, the treated material W is heated at about 600 to 1000° C. in an N ₂ atmosphere near atmospheric pressure to perform wax removal treatment and preheating.

When the preheating process is completed, the processing material W is lowered in the transfer chamber 8 by the lifting table 21 in a reverse operation to that described above.

On the other hand, the support member 26 of the trolley main body 25 waiting below the first baking chamber 12a moves forward and receives the processing material W, and then the trolley main body 25 runs and moves below the second baking chamber 12b. The processing material loading device 16 is stopped above the processing material loading device 16, and the processing material W is lifted onto the support platform 19 by raising the support platform 19 by the cylinder 18.
The treated material W is received in the second firing chamber 1 in the same manner as described above.
2b. In addition, in the meantime, the trolley body 2
5 returns to the original state.

Thereafter, the processing material W which has already been charged into the charging side purge chamber 1A as described above from the charging door 2 is charged into the first firing chamber 12a through the above process and is preheated.

Note that the processing material W in the second firing chamber 12b is
It is heated to 1300° C. to 1400° C. in a N ₂ atmosphere, and subsequently heated to 1850° C. in a pressurized N ₂ atmosphere of 9.5 Kg/cm ² by supplying N ₂ gas for firing.

When the sintering is completed, the inside of the second firing chamber 12b is furnace cooled to about 1000°C, and then the inside of the second firing chamber 12b is
The pressure inside 2b is lowered to near atmospheric pressure.

Thereafter, similarly to after the preheating treatment, the lifting table 21 is lowered to transfer the processing material W to the transfer chamber 8, and the intermediate door 9b is opened to transfer the extraction carriage 6b.
The extraction purge chamber 1 is filled with the material W to be treated in advance and has an _N2 gas atmosphere, similar to the purge chamber 1A.
B is charged, cooled to below about 150° C., and extracted out of the furnace through the extraction door 2b using the extraction cylinder device 3b.

After extracting the processing material W out of the furnace, the extraction purge chamber 1B is evacuated and _N2 gas is supplied to near atmospheric pressure in preparation for cooling the processing material W next time.

In the above embodiment, two processing chambers are provided, but three or more processing chambers may be used, and the pressure-resistant sealing mechanism is not limited to the clutch ring type.

(Effects of the Invention) As is clear from the above description, according to the vertical pressurized atmosphere furnace of the present invention, a vertical pressurized atmosphere furnace consisting of a plurality of pressure-resistant structures each having an open bottom is installed in the ceiling of the transfer chamber connecting the purge chambers. A mold processing chamber is provided, and at a position corresponding to the vertical processing chamber of the transfer chamber, a processing material loading device consisting of a support stand, a hearth, and a gate valve, and a lifting platform that supports this processing material loading device. , a pressure-resistant sealing mechanism is provided for forming a pressure-resistant seal by press-fitting the gate valve to the lower opening of the vertical processing chamber, and the processing material placed on the support table is transferred to the transfer chamber from another support table. A conveying means is provided.

While the processing material is being heated in the processing chamber, the lower opening of the processing chamber is sealed by a pressure-resistant sealing mechanism, so that the high temperature atmosphere within the processing chamber does not flow into the transfer chamber. Therefore, the conveyance means does not need to take into account high heat resistance, and not only is it less expensive, but also can easily maintain a pressurized state.

In addition, even when processing materials in a pressurized atmosphere, the pressure-resistant structure is inexpensive because only a processing chamber installed on the ceiling of the transfer chamber is required, and each processing chamber can be controlled at any temperature and pressure pattern. This allows for efficient high-mix, low-volume production.

Furthermore, since the conveyance means can be shared without being provided for each processing chamber, it is possible to simplify the mechanism and ensure reliable conveyance.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional front view of a vertical pressurized atmosphere furnace according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line -- in FIG. 1, FIG. FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of the pressure-resistant seal mechanism. 1A, 1B - purge chamber, 8 - transfer chamber, 11 - vertical processing chamber, 12a, 12b - first and second baking chambers,
14-Opening, 15-Pressure sealing mechanism, 16-Processing material loading device, 17-Gate valve, 19-Support stand, 20
~ Hearth, 21 ~ Elevating platform, 24 ~ Conveying means, W ~ Processing material.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vertical processing chamber consisting of a plurality of pressure-resistant structures with an open bottom is installed on the ceiling of a transfer chamber in which purge chambers are connected, and a support stand is installed at a position corresponding to the vertical processing chamber of the transfer chamber. , a processing material loading device comprising a hearth and a gate valve, a lifting platform that supports the processing material loading device, and a pressure-resistant seal mechanism that presses the gate valve to the lower opening of the vertical processing chamber to form a pressure-resistant seal. A vertical pressurized atmosphere furnace, characterized in that the transfer chamber is provided with a transfer means for transferring the processing material placed on the support stand to another support stand.