Method for sealing a dryer

Claim 1

A method for sealing a veneer dryer, having a chamber defined by planar panels connected to each other at respective elongate joints extending along respective mutually adjacent edges of said panels for confining gas at a dryer operating temperature exceeding the ambient temperature outside the chamber, against leakage of said gas from said chamber, said method comprising: (a) while said panels are connected to each other, fastening respective elongate enclosing members into abutment with mutually adjacent pairs of said panels along said respective joints such that each of said enclosing members bridges and is longitudinally coextensive with a respective one of said joints and thereby forming respective enclosures between said enclosing members and said panels, the interiors of said respective enclosures being exposed to respective ones of said joints; (b) injecting into said enclosures, at a temperature less than said dryer operating temperature, a heat-resistant, gas-impermeable closed cell curable foam in such quantity that said enclosures are substantially filled with said closed cell foam; (c) permitting said foam to cure; and (d) thereafter operating said dryer at said dryer operating temperature and thereby increasing the temperature of said closed cell foam so as to expand said foam within said enclosures into tight sealing abutment with said joints to prevent leakage of said gas from said chamber through said joints.

Claim 2

A method for sealing a veneer dryer, having a chamber defined by planar panels connected to each other at respective elongate joints extending along respective mutually adjacent edges of said panels for confining gas at a dryer operating temperature exceeding the ambient temperature outside the chamber, against leakage of said gas from said chamber, said method comprising: (a) while said panels are connected to each other, fastening respective elongate enclosing members into abutment with mutually adjacent pairs of said panels along said respective joints such that each of said enclosing members bridges and is longitudinally coextensive with a respective one of said joints and thereby forming respective enclosures between said enclosing members and said panels, the interiors of said respective enclosures being exposed to respective ones of said joints; (b) injecting into said enclosures, at a temperature less than said dryer operating temperature, a heat-resistant, gas-impermeable closed cell curable foam in such quantity that said enclosures are substantially filled with said closed cell foam; (c) permitting said foam to cure; and (d) thereafter operating said dryer at said dryer operating temperature and thereby increasing the temperature of said closed cell foam so as to expand said foam within said enclosures into tight sealing abutment with said joints to prevent leakage of said gas from said chamber through said joints.

Claim 12

The method of any one of claims 1 through 10 wherein a mutually adjacent pair of said panels include fasteners inserted therethrough at portions thereof adjacent the joint between said pair of panels for fastening said panels together, said step (a) further including fastening one of said elongate enclosing members into abutment with said pair of panels such that the interior of the enclosure formed thereby is exposed to said fasteners.

Claim 13

The method of any one of claims 1 through 10 wherein at least some of said elongate enclosing members have apertures formed therein at spaced locations along their lengths, said step (b) comprising injecting said closed cell foam into said enclosures through said apertures.