Patent Application
20110241273
a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a one-piece multi-layer sintering carrier and more particularly to a one-piece multi-layer sintering carrier which is highly ventilative and customizable.
b) Description of the Prior Art
In general, after a heat treatment product (chinaware or a hardened piece, etc.) has been put on a heat treatment carrier, the carrier and the heat treatment product are orderly stacked in heat treatment equipment (commonly referred to as a kiln or a furnace) to conduct heating or cooling (commonly referred to as sintering or annealing). Conventionally, the carriers are divided into a type A and a type B.
The type-A carrier is commonly called a box which is in a pentahedral shape. The heat treatment products are put in the boxes and then the boxes are one by one orderly stacked in the kiln or furnace (the heat treatment equipment). The boxes can be also assembled together.
The type-B carrier is commonly called a rack (normally an assembly of shelf plates and supports), wherein a shelf plate is put on a top of three or four supports and after a sintering product has been put on the shelf plate, three or four supports are put on the shelf plate again, followed by putting another shelf plate on the supports, with the supports and the shelf plates being stacked orderly.
The rack-type carriers can be assembled integrally by assembling the shelf plates and the supports as one piece (solid body).
Nevertheless, when using the aforementioned heat treatment carrier, following issues and shortcomings actually exist to be improved.
Both the type-A box and the type-B rack are provided with a common feature that after one layer has been stacked, another layer is stacked on the top of it. This stacking method is very convenient when dealing with a large-scaled object. However, when dealing with a small object (such as an electronic element like MLCC (Multi-Layer Ceramic Capacitor)), as the heat treatment is performed continuously, movement of the carriers in the furnace will easily cause the boxes or the racks to displace horizontally to drop out, resulting in an imperfect product; or, imperfect ventilation from left to right or from front to rear may be induced due to a design reason, which further results in an imperfect temperature distribution in the furnace. Therefore, the improvement is indeed required.
Accordingly, how solve the aforementioned issues and shortcomings of the prior art is a direction of research and development for improvement by the present inventor and related vendors.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a heat treatment carrier which is highly ventilative, customizable and formed integrally.
To achieve the aforementioned object, the one-piece multi-layer sintering carrier, according to the present invention, includes plural vertical rods, plural X-directed transversal rods, plural Y-directed transversal rods and at least two holding plates. Outer walls of every vertical rod are provided in spacing with X-directed holes and Y-directed holes which are mutually perpendicular. The plural X-directed transversal rods and the plural Y-directed transversal rods are fixed respectively at the X-directed holes and the Y-directed holes. The vertical rods are connected and tightly fitted as one unit through the X-directed transversal rods and Y-directed transversal rods. The holding plate can be accommodated on a multi-layer horizontal plane which is formed by the plural X-directed transversal rods between the vertical rods and the holding plate can be placed with at least one pre-determined sintering object.
By the aforementioned structures, before sintering, the sintering object (such as a passive electronic element like MLCC) is put on the holding plate and then the holding plate, along with the sintering object, is inserted on the multi-layer (more than two layers) horizontal plane formed by the plural X-directed transversal rods. Next, this one-piece multi-layer carrier is put into a continuous sintering furnace for sintering.
A height of the vertical rods of the one-piece multi-layer sintering carrier, of the present invention, can be designed according to an effective height of heat treatment equipment (kiln or furnace) of a customer and spacing on the vertical rod can be designed depending on longitudinal and transversal ventilation in the furnace of the customer. The one-piece multi-layer design can save time of transportation and there will be no sliding out during transportation or movement in the heat treatment. Therefore, work convenience can be improved effectively and the continuous heat treatment in the furnace longitudinally and transversally can all have the good ventilation. If the holding plate is further configured as a multi-hole plate, then hot air convection between top and bottom in the furnace is also improved significantly, such that a temperature on a cross section of the heat treatment equipment (kiln or furnace) can be distributed more evenly and uniformity of a product quality can be better.
To enable a further understanding of the said objectives and the technological methods of the invention herein, the brief description of the drawings below is followed by the detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
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Accordingly, technical keys of the one-piece multi-layer sintering carrier 1 of the present invention, to improve the prior art are that the one-piece multi-layer sintering carrier 1 includes vertical rods 2, the walls of which are provided with the X-directed holes 21 and Y-directed holes 22; the plural X-directed transversal rods 31 and Y-directed transversal rods 32 which are fixed at the X-directed holes 21 and Y-directed holes 22; and the holding plates 4 which are put on the planes formed by the plural X-directed transversal rods 31. By this kind of structures, as there are gaps between the layers at front, rear, left and right of the one-piece multi-layer sintering carrier 1, the good ventilation effect is provided when sintering. In addition, as the one-piece multi-layer sintering carrier 1 is the solid body which is formed integrally, the structures are safe and stable and the carrier 1 will not tilt or fail during transportation or movement in sintering. Furthermore, the type or number of layers of the carrier 1 can be changed according to a dimension of customer's heat treatment equipment or a requirement of ventilation, such that a temperature distribution on a cross section inside the furnace can be more uniform and homogeneity of a product quality can be better.
It is of course to be understood that the embodiments described herein is merely illustrative of the principles of the invention and that a wide variety of modifications thereto may be effected by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
