GB1310249A - Sintering and melting of glass forming materials - Google Patents

Abstract

1310249 Glass melting furnaces TRANSGLAS PATENT - UND LIZENZVERWERTUNGS AG 22 May 1970 [22 May 1969] 25049/70 Heading F4B [Also in Division C1] A process for sintering and melting glassforming materials comprises conveying the materials to the edge 8 of a melting vat of a melting furnace, sintering the materials by heat derived at least in part from the furnace and charging the hot sintered materials into the melting vat. The materials pass from a hopper on to a tray 15 which periodically is displaced to bring the holes 16 in the tray 15 and a lower fixed tray 14, into alignment and thus allow the material to fall on to a shovel 17. The shovel 17 and a plunger 18 are both horizontally displaceable between a position beneath the trays 14, 15 and a position on the lip 8. After some of the materials have been discharged on to the shovel, the shovel and plunger are shifted to the position shown by the full lines on Fig. 4. The materials are then sintered by the furnace heat and by laterally arranged small burners 21 and/or electrical heating elements. The frit produced by sintering is discharged into the vat by movement of the plunger 18. To prevent the materials adhering to the shovel 17 and to further assist sintering the shovel includes electrical heating elements 24. The melting vat is divided into melting and clarification zones by air blown into the vat from nozzles 11.