Saggar Stacking Order Control in Heat Treatment Furnaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional heat treatment systems cannot stack saggars in the up-down direction in a desired order due to thermal deformation and conveyor mechanisms that change the saggar order after unstacking and restacking, making it difficult to maintain the uppermost saggar with a lid placement in the correct position.
Innovation Solution
A heat treatment system with separate conveyor mechanisms and recovery units for each saggar allows for parallel conveying and recovery, enabling the saggars to be stacked and unstacked in a desired order by adjusting the send-off order at a joining part, ensuring the saggar with a lid placement is consistently at the top.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a conventional conveyor mechanism is used to convey and restack saggars, then the saggars can be conveyed through the heat treatment furnace, but the order of saggars in the up-down direction is switched between before unstacking and after stacking, making it impossible to maintain a desired stacking order
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyor system is divided into multiple independent conveyor mechanisms (first conveyor mechanism for first saggar, second conveyor mechanism for second saggar), each capable of conveying saggars along separate paths. This segmentation allows independent control of each saggar's position and order in the stack, resolving the contradiction by enabling desired stacking order without requiring a completely complex integrated system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces separate conveying paths (first conveying path and second conveying path) as an additional spatial dimension for controlling saggar order. By routing saggars through different paths and allowing them to merge at different points, the system can achieve any desired stacking order without increasing mechanical complexity significantly.
2Productivity
If multiple saggars are stacked in up-down direction for heat treatment, then productivity is improved, but the uppermost saggar undergoes thermal deformation and shape change, requiring it to always be in a specific position
Solution Approach 1:
The system determines and sets the stacking order in advance, before the saggars enter the heat treatment furnace. By using the conveyor mechanisms to arrange saggars in the desired order (with the thermally stable saggar positioned as the uppermost one) before heat treatment begins, the system ensures shape consistency while maintaining high productivity through stacked processing.
3Adaptability or versatility
If separate conveyor mechanisms with different conveying paths are used for each saggar, then the saggars can be conveyed in parallel and stacked in desired order, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each conveyor mechanism is designed with multi-functionality, capable of conveying different saggars along different paths and merging them at various points. This universal design allows the same basic conveyor mechanism to be used repeatedly for different stacking configurations, achieving high adaptability without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A heat treatment system may include a heat treatment furnace; a supply device; a stack device configured to stack saggars in an up-down direction; a first conveyor configured to convey the saggars to the heat treatment furnace; an unstack device configured to unstack the stacked saggars; a recovery device; and a second conveyor configured to convey the saggars from the heat treatment furnace to the unstack device. At least one of the recovery device and the supply device may include at least a first conveyor mechanism and a second conveyor mechanism. The recovery device may further include a first recovery unit disposed on the first conveying path and a second recovery unit disposed on the second conveying path, or the supply device may further include a first supply unit disposed on the first conveying path and a second supply unit disposed on the second conveying path.