Patent ID: 8795766

Claim:
A method for the continuous production of coated sand, comprising the steps of: 1) filling a sand batch heater with sand; 2) heating said sand in said sand batch heater as a batch to a desired temperature with heated ambient air; 3) recovering exhaust air at a negative pressure from said sand batch heater to preheat said ambient air in a heat exchanger, wherein said ambient air is not mixed with said exhaust air; 4) delivering heated sand as a batch from said sand batch heater into a sand batch mixer to form a coating on said heated sand; 5) delivering coated sand in said sand batch mixer all at once into a continuous mixer, wherein linear speed of said continuous mixer is automatically adjusted to maintain the level of said coated sand in said continuous mixer at a desired height, using computer processing of an input/output algorithm based upon event information from said sand batch mixer; and 6) performing steps 1-5 continuously, thereby providing a means to run said sand batch heater and said sand batch mixer continuously so that said coated sand is delivered to said continuous mixer, allowing said continuous mixer to deliver said coated sand continuously without interruption until any desired number of batches are completed.