Patent ID: 7566221

Claim:
A method of conveying a gas to a gas inlet passage of a reaction chamber provided inside a CVI/CVD oven, the method comprising: providing a gas feed pipe that communicates an exterior of the oven with an interior of the oven, the gas feed pipe terminating at least adjacent to a gas inlet passage of the reaction chamber; and substantially isolating the gas feed pipe by surrounding the gas feed pipe with a substantially gas-tight tubular sealing device that extends from an interior wall of the oven at a location where the gas feed pipe enters the oven to a location adjacent to the gas inlet passage of the reaction chamber; wherein the tubular sealing device is secured in place in a manner so as to provide a substantially gas-sealed path through which the gas feed pipe extends, and wherein at least a part of the tubular sealing device is transversely flexible to accommodate positional differences between the respective ends of the tubular sealing device at the location at which the tubular sealing device is fixed to the oven wall and the location adjacent to the gas inlet passage.