Air Lock Segmentation for Inert Gas Transport
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Solution Overview
Problem
Closed inlet air locks used in furnaces are inefficient and costly due to the time-consuming and expensive process of evacuating air from the lock shaft, limiting workpiece transport to a clocked and slow manner.
Innovation Solution
The air lock design incorporates partitions transverse to the transport direction with gas inlet and outlet openings within the lock shaft, allowing inert gas to flow through workpiece chambers, ensuring continuous and rapid transport without atmospheric contamination, and featuring adjustable manhole covers and silicone seals for enhanced tightness and maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If air is completely evacuated from the lock shaft, then atmospheric contamination is prevented, but transport time increases and costs rise
Solution Approach 1:
The lock shaft is divided into multiple workpiece chambers by transverse partition walls, allowing independent gas management for each chamber. This segmentation enables selective inert gas introduction and evacuation without requiring complete vacuum of the entire shaft, reducing transport time while maintaining atmospheric protection.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of using vacuum to prevent atmospheric contamination, the patent introduces inert gas (such as nitrogen or argon) into the workpiece chambers. This creates an inert atmosphere that protects workpieces from oxidation and contamination, eliminating the need for time-consuming complete evacuation while still preventing harmful atmospheric contact.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If air is completely evacuated from the lock shaft, then atmospheric contamination is prevented, but operational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the lock shaft into separate workpiece chambers with individual gas inlet and outlet openings, the system can process smaller volumes of gas independently. This reduces the total energy required for gas evacuation compared to pumping out the entire lock shaft volume, lowering operational costs while maintaining contamination prevention.
Solution Approach 2:
Replacing complete vacuum evacuation with inert gas introduction and localized evacuation reduces energy consumption. The inert gas atmosphere provides the same protective function against contamination but requires less energy to maintain than complete vacuum, significantly reducing operational costs.
3Productivity
If continuous transport is enabled, then productivity increases, but gas sealing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The partition walls create separate workpiece chambers that can be independently sealed and pressurized with inert gas. This segmentation allows continuous transport through the lock shaft while maintaining gas barriers between chambers, enabling high productivity without requiring complex sealing systems across the entire shaft.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables continuous transport by introducing inert gas at the inlet end and evacuating at the outlet end, creating a continuous flow of protected atmosphere through the lock shaft. Workpieces can be continuously loaded and unloaded without stopping for vacuum cycles, maintaining productivity while using simple partition-based sealing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables cost-effective and rapid workpiece transport through the air lock, maintaining a contamination-free atmosphere by completely filling workpiece chambers with inert gas, and allowing for continuous or cycle-bound transport with minimal residual atmospheric components.
Implementation Method 1
an inert gas can be introduced into the workpiece chamber through the gas inlet opening, which flows through the workpiece chamber from the gas inlet opening to the gas outlet opening
Implementation Method 2
The shaft walls, the shaft floor, and/or especially the shaft cover can have a thin silicone seal, which increases sliding properties and tightness
Implementation Method 3
The movable shaft cover is preferably suspended by several springs so that the pressure with which the shaft cover rests on the partitions can be regulated
Data Source
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AI summary
The present invention relates to an air lock having a housing, which has a front entry opening, a rear exit opening and an air lock shaft extending therebetween, through which a transport apparatus extends, which is connected to workpiece carriers such that workpieces arranged thereupon are transportable through the air lock shaft. In order to describe an air lock, which enables cost-effective and comparably fast transport of the workpieces through the air lock, according to the invention, the transport apparatus is at least indirectly connected to partition walls arranged crosswise to the transport direction, each of which delimit workpiece chambers to the front and rear, wherein the air lock shaft has at least one first gas inlet opening and at least one first gas outlet opening, which open up into a workpiece chamber within the air lock shaft, such that an inert gas can be introduced into the workpiece chamber through the gas inlet opening, said inert gas flowing through the workpiece chamber from the gas inlet opening to the gas outlet opening.