Oven for curing resin-coated wires

Claim 1

In an oven having an elongated housing through which electrical conductor wires are to be fed, the wires having an insulator resin powder adherent thereto as a covering which is to be heated and cured inside the oven to become part of the wire configuration: a plurality of laterally spaced elongated wire-treating chambers inside the oven parallel to the long axis of the oven, each chamber being insulated by a barrier from the adjacent chamber and assigned to the passage and treatment of an individual wire; separate heating means for each chamber disposed therebeneath for heating and curing the resin cover on each wire; each wire chamber being so constructed that heated air may pass therethrough to effect curing of the resin cover on the associated wire, and fan means for circulating the heated air through each wire-treating chamber; individual cooling air inlet ducts, each normally closed by a damper, in communication with said fan means for selectively admitting a draft of forced ambient air to a wire chamber for cooling that chamber upon opening the related damper in the event the wire in that chamber should fail to feed; individual cooling air exhaust ducts each in communication with a related wire-treating chamber and each exhaust duct being normally closed by a damper; whereby upon failure to feed a wire properly the wire not being fed may be cooled by opening the related inlet and exhaust ducts while disabling the related heating means and continuing operation of the fan means.