Conveyor oven usable as pre-bake oven in a print plate imaging and processing system and method of using same
US6323462A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 23, 2000 |
| Grant date | Nov 27, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 23, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC F)Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
- CPC primaryF27B9/3011
- WIPO fieldThermal processes and apparatus
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
A conveyor oven has two insulated cabinets, each cabinet having two plenums for conducting heated air toward a printing plate that rests on a conveyor. The two plenums in each cabinet face each other and are substantially identical. Each plenum has a supply and return duct assembly located above the conveyor, and is supplied by a fan and heater arrangement located below and underneath the conveyor. An insulated intermediate chamber is disposed between the exit of the first upstream cabinet and the second, downstream cabinet. With this arrangement, the conveyor carries a printing plate through the first cabinet, where the plate is heated, then through the intermediate insulated chamber, where it is maintained at a heated temperature, and then into the second cabinet where it is again heated. It is then conveyed out of the second cabinet and out of the oven by the conveyor. The system is compact--so compact, in fact, that it permits a trailing portion of the printing plate to be heated in the first cabinet at the same time a middle portion is in the intermediate chamber, and a leading portion is heated in the second cabinet.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.