Radiant wall oven and process for generating infrared radiation having a nonuniform emission distribution

摘要

Radiant emitting walls (16) enclose opposite sides of a central combustion chamber in an oven where coated objects to be dried are placed or passed. The radiant emitting walls (16) generate primarily infrared radiation and have a nonuniform temperature distribution so that the temperature of the lower portion of the oven can be selectively adjusted to be significantly higher than the temperature of the upper portion. An insulated outer housing surrounds the radiant walls and defines combustion chambers (23) each having a linear burner (20) which runs substantially the entire length of the radiant emitting walls. The lower portions of the radiant emitting walls receive energy primarily from radiation from the linear burners and the upper portions of the radiant emitting walls receive energy from primarily radiation from the interior radiant emitting surfaces (15) of the insulated outer housing and convection from the linear burners. The temperature distribution of the radiant emitting walls can be selectively varied by varying the distance between the burners and the radiant emitting walls.