Heat treatment furnace and conveyor therefor

Claim 1

A FURNACE COMPRISING AN ELONGATED HORIZONTALLY DISPOSED HOUSING HAVING AN ENTRANCE END AND AN EXIT END, A PAIR OF SPACED ALIGNED HEARTH SECTIONS EXTENDING HORIZONTALLY AND LONGITUDINALLY THROUGH SAID FURNACE, A HEAT TREATMENT CHAMBER IN SAID FURNACE VERTICALLY DISPOSED FROM BUT IN ALIGNMENT WITH THE SPACE BETWEEN SAID HEARTH SECTION, AN ELEVATOR IN SAID FURNACE LOCATED BETWEEN SAID HEARTH SECTIONS, MEANS FOR MOVING SAID ELEVATOR VERTICALLY BETWEEN A FIRST POSITION WHEREIN IT IS HORIZONTALLY ALIGNED WITH SAID HEARTH SECTION AND A SECOND POSITION WHEREIN IT IS WITHIN SAID HEAT TREATMENT CHAMBER, RECIPROCAL PUSHER MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY MOVING A WORK LOAD FROM THE HEARTH SECTION ADJACENT SAID ENTRANCE END ONTO SAID ELEVATOR AND THEN ON TO THE OTHER HEARTH SECTION, SAID PUSHER MEANS COMPRISING A PAIR OF SPACED RAMS LOCATED ADJACENT SAID HEARTH SECTIONS AND SPACED FROM EACH OTHER BY A DISTANCE AT LEAST AS GREAT AS THE WIDTH OF SAID ELEVATOR, MEANS FOR RECIPROCATING SAID RAMS IN UNISON WHEREBY THE SPACED RELATION BETWEEN THE RAMS ALWAYS REMAIN CONSTANT, SAID RAMS EACH HAVING A RETRACTABLE LATCH MOVABLE BETWEEN AN OPERATIVE POSITION AND A RETRACTED POSITION, MEANS NORMALLY BIASING SAID LATCHES TO THEIR SAID OPERATIVE POSITION WHEREUPON AS SAID RAMS MOVE TOWARD THE SAID EXIT END WORK LOADS POSITIONED ON SAID HEARTH SECTIONS ARE ENGAGED AND MOVED THEREWITH, SAID LATCHES BEING DEPRESSIBLE TO RETRACTED POSITION WHEN SAID RAMS MOVE BACK TOWARD SAID ENTRANCE END WHEREBY SAID LATCHES PASS FREELY BY THE WORK LOADS, AND MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY CYCLING SAID PUSHER MEANS FROM A NEUTRAL POSITION WHEREIN SAID ELEVATOR IS UNOBSTRUCTED FOR VERTICAL MOVEMENT AND WHEREIN SAID RAMS ARE LOCATED WITH THEIR LATCHES SLIGHTLY IN ADVANCE OF THE WORK LOADS, TO A REARWARD POSITION WHEREIN SAID RAMS MOVE BACK A SUFFICIENT DISTANCE FOR THEIR LATCHES TO PASS BEHIND ADJACENT WORK LOADS INCLUDING ANY WORK LOAD LOCATED ON SAID ELEVATOR, AND THEN TO A FORWARD POSITION WHEREIN SAID RAMS AND LATCHES SIMULTANEOUSLY MOVE A WORK LOAD FROM THE HEARTH SECTION ADJACENT THE SAID ENTRANCE END ONTO SAID ELEVATOR, A WORK LOAD FROM SAID ELEVATOR ONTO THE OTHER HEARTH SECTION, AND A WORK LOAD ON THE OTHER HEARTH SECTION TOWARD SAID EXIT END.