Patent ID: 6668590
Filing Date: 2003-12-30
Classification: C03B,F27B,F27D

Abstract:
A furnace for heating glass sheets comprising:a housing having a pair of side walls, a floor and a ceiling that cooperate to define a heating chamber; a roll conveyor for conveying glass sheets through the heating chamber along a direction of conveyance; a forced convection heater located within the housing and including a gas burner assembly generally adjacent one of the housing side walls, and the gas burner assembly including an outlet through which heated products of combustion from the gas burner assembly are supplied to the heating chamber at a location intermediate the housing side walls; and the forced convection heater also including a hot gas distributor located within the housing generally adjacent the other side wall and including an inlet that is spaced from the outlet of the gas burner assembly intermediate the housing side walls, the hot gas distributor having a suction fan for drawing the heated products of combustion from the outlet of the gas burner assembly together with spent recirculating gas in the heating chamber into the hot gas distributor through its inlet for mixing to provide heated gas, and the hot gas distributor having distribution openings through which the mixed heated gas is distributed to the conveyed glass sheets on the roll conveyor to provide heating of the glass sheets.