Electric heating – Heating devices – Combined with container – enclosure – or support for material...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-18
2001-10-30
Walberg, Teresa (Department: 3742)
Electric heating
Heating devices
Combined with container, enclosure, or support for material...
C432S124000, C432S141000, C219S388000, C219S389000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06310324
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to ovens, and more particularly to an oven with a rotatable, part supporting magazine for precisely heating a plurality of similar objects, such as lengths of tubing, to a desired temperature and for a desired amount of time.
2. Description of Related Art
The heating of parts to a desired temperature is necessary in many industries. Heating to a particular temperature is important in many instances, for example, when heating plastic parts or components to a desired temperature so that they may be subsequently formed into a variety of configurations. For example, in the automotive industry a variety of plastic parts or components are required for the manufacture of motor vehicles. One example of such parts are plastic tubes for use as fuel lines in motor vehicles. The manufacture of complexly shaped plastic tubing requires heating the tubes to a relatively precise temperature so that the tubes can be shaped into different configurations. The tubes are typically heated in ovens. Traditional ovens, however, are not very efficient, and control of the temperature and the amount of time during which a part is heated is often difficult to maintain because of the physical construction and controls associated with the ovens.
Traditional ovens which rely on radiant heating from one or more fixed heating elements also are not especially efficient, from an energy usage standpoint, because relatively long time intervals are often required to heat parts to the desired temperature before removal. An oven which operates to actively blow or circulate heated air over the parts held therein would significantly reduce the time needed to heat the parts to a given temperature. This would also increase the energy efficiency of the oven because parts would be heated to a given temperature in a lesser period of time, thus reducing the amount of power consumed by the oven to process a given number of parts in a given period of time.
Traditional ovens are also typically not easily moved from one location to another within a work area, such as a factory. For convenience and utility, it would be highly desirable to be able to move the oven as needed within a work environment.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide an oven which more rapidly heats parts to a desired temperature than previously developed ovens, and with greater energy efficiency.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an oven suitable for heating a large plurality of lengths of plastic tubing, and for allowing each length of tubing to be ejected from the oven, one at a time, as soon as same has been within the oven for a predetermined period of time.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an oven that is more compact than previously developed ovens used for heating pluralities of parts, and which is capable of being easily moved, if necessary, within a work environment such as a factory area.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above and other objects are provided by a heating apparatus in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus includes an oven having a housing. Within the housing is disposed a magazine for receiving and independently supporting a plurality of independent parts, such as, for example, lengths of tubing. The magazine is disposed for rotational movement within the housing. Also disposed within the housing is a heat circulating assembly for heating the parts being supported by the magazine. Parts are heated by forcibly circulating heated air within the housing of the oven over part supporting elements of the magazine that contain the parts being heated. The housing includes a user controlled door which allows parts to be sequentially loaded into the rack and sequentially removed once each part reaches a predetermined temperature. An ejection apparatus is used to partially eject parts from the magazine, in sequential fashion, once the parts have reached a predetermined temperature.
A controller monitors the time that each part spends within the oven being heated. The controller also controls operation of an actuator assembly which is used to rotate the magazine during part loading and ejecting cycles. The controller also controls the ejection apparatus via signals supplied by a user actuatable control, which in one preferred form comprises a foot pedal operated switch.
The apparatus of the present invention thus forms an effective means heating a large plurality of parts in such a manner that a heat soak time for each of the parts is monitored, and such that each part spends a user selected amount of time within the oven before being removed.
A principal advantage of the present invention is that the forced circulation of heated air around the part supporting elements of the magazine significantly reduces the time needed to heat the parts to the desired temperature. This also reduces the power required to operate the apparatus during a given workshift.
The apparatus of the present invention also provides efficient temperature controlled heating. The apparatus of the present invention further requires minimal user sophistication because an electronic control system guides the user and provides real time status information about the apparatus and the loaded parts in the oven.
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Gillespie Roger D.
Singer Ronald A.
Ward Terry A.
Dahbour Fadi H.
Harness & Dickey & Pierce P.L.C.
Walberg Teresa
Wartrom Machine Systems Incorporated
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