An apparatus for sterilizing containers such as bottles and vials for the pharmaceutical industry, in the form of a tunnel continuously traversed by a conveyor belt for said containers, comprising a sterlization chamber which utilizes a hot air stream in the laminar flow regime and is provided with air filters, characterized in that in said sterilization chamber the heated air is fed to a pressure chamber communicating in a sealed manner with said filters, and from these latter on to said containers to be sterilized, between said pressure chamber-filter system and walls of the sterilization chamber there being defined a jacket for recirculation of the air, in which the pressure is kept at a lower value than the pressure present in said pressure chamber-filter system.

For the purpose of cooling anode rods carrying hot spent anodes removed from electrolytic furnaces, a separate cooling chamber is provided through which the anode rods to be cooled are conveyed by means of a through conveyor, preferably on pallets. The cooling chamber possesses, in its bottom region, a cooling air feed and, in its top region, a waste air extraction duct. At both ends, the cooling chamber is closable by means of doors.

A nuclear reactor new fuel handling system which conveys new fuel from a fuel preparation room into the reactor containment boundry. The handling system is provided with a fuel preheating station which is adapted to heat the new fuel to reactor refueling temperatures in such a way that the fuel is heated from the top down so that fuel element cladding failure due to thermal expansion is avoided.

A drying apparatus for surface treated cans or the like, with at least one chain conveyor which has holders for the cans. A hot air apparatus for the surface drying of the cans has an air conducting device, which directs at least one first stream of hot air at the base regions of the cans and guides at least one other second stream of air to the wall regions of the cans. The second stream of air is directed toward the can wall by at least one air conducting wall that runs obliquely in the direction toward the wall of the cans and the wall forms a wall jet of the second stream of in at least one area along the can wall.

A method and apparatus for roasting barrels used in aging alcoholic spirits involves directing a heated air stream through the inside of the barrel at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined duration. Compared to prior methods and apparatus which utilize direct flame impingement and often result in nonuniform roasting and undesired burning of the barrel staves, a heated air stream produces uniform roasting of the entire inside surface of the barrel. An indexable conveyor adapted to hold a plurality of barrels moves each barrel into alignment with an outlet. A stream of heated air flowed from the outlet enters an open end of the aligned barrel. A diverter plate located at the other end of the barrel partially impedes outflow of the stream, thereby increasing residence time of the air to uniformly roast the inside surface. The diverter plate mounts to an exhaust hood which may be moved toward and away from the ends of the barrels, thereby to permit movement of the conveyor into alignment with, and adjacent to, the ends of the barrels during roasting.