GB904807A - A method of melting glass - Google Patents

Abstract

904,807. Glass manufacture. PALMER, D. M. Oct. 11, 1960, No. 34834/60. Class 56. [Also in Group XII] Pellets containing glass-making ingredients gravitate through a zone where they are preheated, to a temperature below that at which they soften, by gases rising from a melting zone underneath and then fall into the melting zone where they meet successive blasts of hot gas at different levels, directed in different horizontal directions. In the apparatus shown, pellets prepared by the centrifugal spray drying process of U.S.A. Specification 2,062,907 are fed through a pipe 14 into a pre-heating chamber 10 where they are supported by annuli 17 mounted on a spider 16. The pellets fall between the annuli into a water-jacketed funnel 13, the feed from which is controlled by a valve member 20 adjustable by rack-and-pinion mechanisms 30, 31. The member 20 comprises two concentric tubes 21, of nickel-chromium alloy, and 27, of refractory material, fitting together at the bottom and having overlapping flanges 22, 28 with registering holes at the top. Cooling air is fed through a flexible connection 35 to the space between the tubes to emerge through the holes in the flanges. From the valve 20 the pellets fall into the melting zone enclosed by refractory blocks 54 inside insulating material 53 and a water jacket 48. The pellets meet blasts of gas from burners 59, 60, 61, which are mounted in alternately-disposed oblique directions to produce turbulence in alternating directions. Molten glass collects in the lining 55 of titanium, molybdenum, zirconium or tungsten with silver or copper binder. The glass discharges through a spout 56 with high-frequency heating coil 58. Hot gas from the melting zone passes up through the valve 20 and either through the pipe 38, with valve 39, or up through the pellets on the annuli 17, preheating them, to emerge through the pipe 40. A safety head 42 and inspection device 15 are provided.