Patent ID: 7129436

Claim:
A welding chamber comprising; a substantially rectanguloid enclosure having an open top side, four side walls, and a bottom side, each side wall of the enclosure being radiused at its bottom edge with the bottom side of the enclosure; a substantially dome-shaped transparent cover attached at one edge thereof with hinge means on one side wall proximate to a top edge of the enclosure, such cover being positionable in either a closed position covering the open top side of the enclosure or an open position allowing access inside the enclosure through the open top side thereof; a plurality of gas inlets, each gas inlet traversing through one side wall, a laminar-flow tunnel fixed to an inside surface of each side wall, one end of each flow tunnel being set over one of the plurality of gas inlets, and the other end of each flow tunnel being open-ended and directed toward the bottom of the enclosure, each laminar-flow tunnel for directing the gas downward within the chamber and for providing an expanded volume in which the gas streams emitted by each gas inlet may become even-flowing and non-turbulent; such that when gas is introduced into the gas inlets, a gas stream is emitted from each of the gas inlets into the welding chamber to cause a vortex pattern of gas flow inside the enclosure, laminar gas flow streams going from a vertical downward direction to a horizontal direction across the bottom side of the enclosure, each gas stream being generally tangential to the vortex pattern.