Inline Resistive Heating for Continuous Conductive Products
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for removing organic contaminants from continuous products, such as batch thermal treatment, are inefficient in terms of time, cost, and energy consumption, and do not allow for uniform heating due to the need for loading and unloading products, which leads to non-uniform heating and increased operational costs.
Innovation Solution
An inline thermal treatment system using resistive heating, plasma heating, or laser heating, where electrodes or plasma torches/lasers are used to directly heat continuous conductive or non-conductive products as they move through the system, with a gas supply to control the atmosphere and ensure uniform heating.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If batch thermal treatment in a furnace is used to remove organic contaminants, then the contaminants are removed from the product surface, but the process requires substantial energy consumption to heat the entire furnace interior and additional time for loading, transporting, heating, cooling, and unloading operations
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the heating function from the entire furnace environment and concentrates it directly on the product surface through radiant heating elements positioned in close proximity. This allows thermal treatment to occur without heating the surrounding furnace atmosphere, dramatically reducing energy consumption while maintaining contaminant removal effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces the conventional convection-based furnace heating system with a radiant heating system that uses electromagnetic radiation (infrared) to directly transfer thermal energy to the product surface. This substitution eliminates the need to heat the furnace air and achieves faster, more energy-efficient thermal treatment.
2Reliability
If batch thermal treatment in a furnace is used to remove organic contaminants, then the contaminants are removed from the product surface, but the process requires additional time for loading onto temporary holders, transporting to furnace, heating, cooling, removing, and transferring to packaging holders
Solution Approach 1:
The invention enables continuous thermal treatment by integrating the radiant heating system into an inline production line where products move continuously through the treatment zone on their final packaging holders. This eliminates the batch processing interruptions for loading, unloading, and transferring, maintaining continuous productive action throughout the process.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention performs thermal treatment as a preliminary step before final packaging, integrating it into the production flow so that contaminant removal occurs while products are still on their packaging holders and before they proceed to final packaging operations. This eliminates the need for separate holding and transferring operations.
3Reliability
If batch thermal treatment in a furnace is used to remove organic contaminants, then the contaminants are removed from the product surface, but the method does not allow for uniform heating since outer portions heat at different rates than inner portions near the temporary holder
Solution Approach 1:
The invention employs multiple radiant heating elements positioned at different locations and angles to provide locally optimized heating zones across the product surface. Each heating element targets specific areas to ensure uniform heat distribution, accounting for the product's geometry and position on the packaging holder, thereby achieving consistent contaminant removal across all surfaces.
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
This approach enables rapid, uniform, and cost-effective thermal treatment of continuous products, effectively removing contaminants, drying, and inducing phase changes or chemical reactions, improving product quality and reducing operational expenses compared to batch processes.
Implementation Method 1
the power source is configured to apply an electrical bias between the first electrode and the second electrode to resistively heat the portion of the continuous conductive product disposed between the first and second electrodes
Data Source
AI summary
An inline thermal treatment system for thermally treating a continuous conductive product includes a first electrode configured to contact a continuous conductive product and a second electrode configured to contact the continuous conductive product such that a portion of the continuous conductive product is disposed between the first and second electrodes. The inline thermal treatment system includes a power source coupled to the first electrode and to the second electrode, wherein the power source is configured to apply an electrical bias between the first electrode and the second electrode to resistively heat the portion of the continuous conductive product disposed between the first and second electrodes.