Method of making thermal-insulating module

Claim 1

A method of making a thermal-insulating module for use in an electric furnace, which method comprises providing a mold having four generally vertical walls for forming the hot face, the cold face and a pair of side faces of a furnace insulation module, said wall for forming said hot face having aligned cavity means for holding end portions of a plurality of ceramic supports, inserting said end portions of said individual ceramic supports in said cavity means so that a body portion of each of said supports extends into a central portion of said mold, supplying said mold with an aqueous slurry of refractory fibers plus an inorganic binder and withdrawing water to form a mat of discrete fibers having a hot face, a cold face and a plurality of side faces, in which mat said body portions of said ceramic supports are embedded, opening said mold by moving either said hot-face-defining wall or said cold-face-defining wall relative thereto, removing said wet fibrous mat, and drying said mat to form a module wherein said embedded body portions of said supports are firmly anchored by said fibers of said mat which are interconnected and bonded together by said inorganic bonding agent and wherein said end portions of said ceramic supports protrude from said hot face to provide support for an electrical resistance heating element in a furnace enclosure.

Claim 2

A method of making a thermal-insulating module for use in an electric furnace, which method comprises providing a mold having four generally vertical walls for forming the hot face, the cold face and a pair of side faces of a furnace insulation module, said wall for forming said hot face having aligned cavity means for holding end portions of a plurality of ceramic supports, inserting said end portions of said individual ceramic supports in said cavity means so that a body portion of each of said supports extends into a central portion of said mold, supplying said mold with an aqueous slurry of refractory fibers plus an inorganic binder and withdrawing water to form a mat of discrete fibers having a hot face, a cold face and a plurality of side faces, in which mat said body portions of said ceramic supports are embedded, opening said mold by moving either said hot-face-defining wall or said cold-face-defining wall relative thereto, removing said wet fibrous mat, and drying said mat to form a module wherein said embedded body portions of said supports are firmly anchored by said fibers of said mat which are interconnected and bonded together by said inorganic bonding agent and wherein said end portions of said ceramic supports protrude from said hot face to provide support for an electrical resistance heating element in a furnace enclosure.

Claim 7

A method of making a refractory product suitable for insulation use in a high temperature environment from an aqueous slurry of fibers plus a binder, which product is elongated in at least one direction having a major surface intended to constitute a hot face, which method comprises placing screen means in contact with the aqueous slurry which screen means is generally rectangular in shape and proportioned to constitute a cross-sectional shape of the product in a direction substantially perpendicular to said one direction, depositing superimposed layers of refractory fibers upon said screen means by withdrawing water from said slurry through said screen means until a desired height is accumulated which height is substantially greater than the smaller dimension of said screen means whereby the deposited fibers lie in planes perpendicular to the major surface of the product and treating said accumulation of deposited fiber layers to set said binder and form a stable product having improved thermal-insulating properties when the hot face is exposed to a high temperature environment.

Claim 8

A method of making a refractory product suitable for insulation use in a high temperature environment from an aqueous slurry of fibers plus a binder, which product is elongated in at least one direction having a major surface intended to constitute a hot face, which method comprises placing screen means in contact with the aqueous slurry which screen means is generally rectangular in shape and proportioned to constitute a cross-sectional shape of the product in a direction substantially perpendicular to said one direction, depositing superimposed layers of refractory fibers upon said screen means by withdrawing water from said slurry through said screen means until a desired height is accumulated which height is substantially greater than the smaller dimension of said screen means whereby the deposited fibers lie in planes perpendicular to the major surface of the product and treating said accumulation of deposited fiber layers to set said binder and form a stable product having improved thermal-insulating properties when the hot face is exposed to a high temperature environment.