Apparatus for the continuous feeding of wire to an evaporator boat

US5321792A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Leybold GmBH · DE

Inventors

• Bernhard Schonherr · Offenbach am Main, DE
• Thomas Vogt · Regensburg, DE
• Reiner Gertmann · Gelnhausen, DE
• Helmut Grimm · Mountainside, US
• Gerard Lobig · Frankfurt am Main, DE
• Martin Hornung · Rochester Hills, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 20, 1992
• Grant date: Jun 14, 1994
• Expiry date: Aug 20, 2012

Classification

• Technology area (CPC C): Chemistry; Metallurgy
• CPC primary: C23C14/246
• WIPO field: Surface technology, coating
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A coating material to be evaporated in an evaporator cell disposed in a vacuum chamber is fed in the form of a wire to the evaporator cell in accordance with the depth of the molten bath, by a wire transport including a motor-driven shaft or roller and a counter-roller mounted on a movably journaled lever which in turn is movable via an electromagnetic actuator against the force of a spring means. A wire feed tube is arranged between the wire transport which draws fusible wire from a remote supply and feeds it to the evaporator boat where the wire is evaporated for coating a band-type substrate. The feed tube has a straight section which receives the wire concentrically from the transport and a gooseneck section toward said evaporator boat which twice deflects the wire to provide three points of contact with the inner wall of the tube, thus accurately positioning the wire while preventing clogging of the outlet orifice.