Apparatus and methods for processing molten material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10501358-B2
Application number	US-201615570917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 5, 2016
Priority date	May 6, 2015
Publication date	Dec 10, 2019
Grant date	Dec 10, 2019

Abstract

A glass manufacturing apparatus comprises at least one nozzle facing a conduit and extending transverse to a travel path defined by the conduit. The at least one nozzle is configured to cool molten material within the interior of the conduit with a stream of cooling fluid forced against an exterior of the conduit along a cooling axis extending transverse to the travel path defined by the conduit. In further examples, methods of processing molten material includes cooling the molten material within an interior of a conduit by forcing a stream of cooling fluid against an exterior of the conduit along a cooling axis extending transverse to a travel path defined by the conduit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of processing molten glass-forming material comprising:
flowing the molten glass-forming material through an interior of a conduit along a travel path defined by the conduit from a first station to a second station of a glass manufacturing apparatus;
feeding a coding fluid through at least two inlet ports into a pressure chamber extending along a cooling axis extending transverse to the travel path between a first lateral side and a second lateral side of the conduit;
forcing the cooling fluid from the pressure chamber through a port as a sheet of cooling fluid formed at the port, wherein the port is elongated along the cooling axis; and
cooling the molten glass-forming material within the interior of the conduit by forcing the sheet of coding fluid from the elongated port against an exterior of the conduit.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cooling axis extends perpendicular to the travel path.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cooling axis comprises a linear cooling axis.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cooling the molten glass-forming material comprises forcing the sheet of cooling fluid from the elongated port against the exterior of the conduit within a channel that extends transverse relative to the travel path.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the exterior of the conduit comprises a base of the channel.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the sheet of cooling fluid is dispersed by the base of the channel to travel up opposite sides of the channel.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the sheet of cooling fluid comprises a substantially continuous sheet of cooling fluid forced against the base of the channel.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sheet of cooling fluid comprises a substantially continuous sheet of cooling fluid.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cooling fluid is substantially free of oxygen.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the cooling fluid comprises nitrogen.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising mixing the molten glass-forming material to provide a homogenous molten glass-forming material in the first station of the glass manufacturing apparatus.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising delivering the molten glass-forming material from the second station to an inlet of a forming vessel of the glass manufacturing apparatus.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising delivering the molten glass-forming material from the second station to an inlet of a forming vessel of the glass manufacturing apparatus.

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Kim Jin-Soo
• Kim Kwangjin
• Koo Bonhyoung

Classifications

• C03B17/064

  by the overflow downdraw fusion process; Isopipes therefor · CPC title

• C03B5/44

  Cooling arrangements for furnace walls · CPC title

• Y02P40/57

  Improving the yield, e-g- reduction of reject rates · CPC title

• C03B7/06 Primary

  Means for thermal conditioning or controlling the temperature of the glass · CPC title

• C03B5/16

  Special features of the melting process; Auxiliary means specially adapted for glass-melting furnaces · CPC title