GB738953A - Improvements in or relating to process of making fibers from glass and other fusiblematerial - Google Patents

Abstract

738,953. Fibre-glass manufacture. OWENSCORNING FIBERGLAS CORPORATION. Nov. 24, 1953 [Dec. 2, 1952; Dec. 2, 1952], No. 32609/53. Class 56. A process for making fibres from glass or other fusible material in which a stream of the material in molten state is flowed from a supply thereof and fed into operative association with means for forming the stream of material into fibres comprises forming the stream of molten material with a sheet or ribbon of alternate thick and thin portions as it moves from the source of molten material to the fibre-forming device. As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a supply of the fibre-forming material is contained in a forehearth 10 of a melting furnace, having an orifice in a feeder 12 through which a stream S flows and tends to form a solid sheet or ribbon R which is positively fed by rolls 15 to a feeder 52 having alternate oval orifices and narrow zones. The oval thick portions tend to become circular as the stream flows into the extrance 38 of a blast producing means 18 which direct hot products of combustion in a blast B to attenuate the sheet R into fibres F. As shown, the fibres F are collected on an endless conveyer 20 of the foraminous type, supported on rollers 22, the upper flight 23 collecting a mat M of the fibres F. A chamber 25 below the fibre collecting zone may be connected by a pipe 26 with a blower or source of reduced pressure or vacuum to establish an air stream through the upper flight 23 to assist collection of the fibres and to carry away the spent gases of the blast B. The fibre forming device 18 comprises opposed chambers 30, 31, formed of refractory material 33 enclosed in a metal shell 35, curved downwardly at 36 to provide the entrance 38 for the sheet R and restricted orifices 41, 42 connecting the chambers 30, 31 with a passageway 40. Each chamber 30, 31 has an end wall 44 with minute passages 45 to admit a combustible mixture of fuel and air from supply manifolds 48 connected by pipes 49 with a source of the combustible mixture. The sheet R fed through the feeder 52, which may be cooled by circulating water or other fluid through a chamber 54 therein, is softened by contact with the wall portions of the entrance 38 and readily drawn out with fibres F by the velocity of the blast B in passageway 40. As shown in Figs. 3 and 5, the stream S from the forehearth 101 passes through a slot or series of slots in close relation in a feeder 12<SP>1</SP> and is moulded into alternate thick and thin portions by shaping rolls 20<SP>1</SP>, 22<SP>1</SP> supported on shafts 241, 26<SP>1</SP> positively driven, the rolls being formed with co-operating parallel grooves of V-shape spaced apart by narrow lands so that the sheet or ribbon R comprises diamond-shaped rods joined by thin flat webs. The stream R may be passed to a fibre forming device 18 as in Figs. 1 and 2, or as shown to a pair of burners 100, joined in angular relation and spaced by a guide means 118 formed with a passage shaped to take the sheet R. A chamber 120 surrounds the passage and is cooled by a fluid passed therethrough by tubes 122, 124. Each burner 100 comprises a metal shell 102 with a tapered end 103 and lined with a refractory material 105 to form a combustion chamber 106. The rear of each burner has a fitting 108 formed with a manifold 109 and a supply pipe 110 for the combustible mixture of fuel gas and air. A rear wall 112 of the chamber 106 has small orifices 114 for passage of the mixture, the blast from the burning gases passing out through a restricted orifice 116 on to the sheet R softened as it approaches the blast gases 119.