JP6127868B2 - Glass material manufacturing method and glass material manufacturing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a glass material manufacturing method and a glass material manufacturing apparatus.

  In recent years, research on a containerless floating method has been made as a method for producing a glass material. For example, in Patent Document 1, a barium titanium ferroelectric sample suspended in a gas floating furnace is irradiated with a laser beam, heated and melted, and then cooled, whereby the barium titanium ferroelectric sample is cooled to glass. Is described. Thus, in the containerless floating method, since the progress of crystallization due to contact with the wall surface of the container can be suppressed, even a material that could not be vitrified by a conventional manufacturing method using a container. It may be vitrified. Therefore, the containerless floating method is a method that should be noted as a method capable of producing a glass material having a novel composition.

JP 2006-248801 A

  There is a desire to improve the homogeneity of glass materials produced by the containerless floating method.

  A main object of the present invention is to provide a method capable of producing a glass material having excellent homogeneity by a containerless floating method.

  In the method for producing a glass material according to the present invention, a glass material lump is floated and held above the molding surface by ejecting gas from a gas ejection hole opened on the molding surface of the mold. Is heated and melted to obtain a molten glass, and then the molten glass is cooled to obtain a glass material. A preheated gas is supplied to the gas ejection holes.

  In the manufacturing method of the glass material which concerns on this invention, it is preferable to make temperature of a shaping | molding die lower than the temperature of the gas supplied to a gas ejection hole.

  In the manufacturing method of the glass material which concerns on this invention, it is preferable to manufacture a glass material, cooling a shaping | molding die.

  In the manufacturing method of the glass material which concerns on this invention, it is preferable that the temperature of the gas supplied to a gas ejection hole shall be 100 degreeC or more.

  The apparatus for producing a glass material according to the present invention includes a glass raw material lump in a state where the glass raw material lump is suspended and held above the molding surface by ejecting gas from a gas ejection hole opened on the molding surface of the mold. Is a device for producing a glass material by cooling molten glass after obtaining molten glass by heating and melting. The glass material manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention includes a heating mechanism for heating the gas supplied to the gas ejection holes.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the method which can manufacture the glass material which has the outstanding homogeneity by the containerless floating method can be provided.

It is typical sectional drawing of the manufacturing apparatus of the glass material which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a schematic plan view of a part of the molding surface in the first embodiment. It is typical sectional drawing of the manufacturing apparatus of the glass material which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.

  Hereinafter, an example of the preferable form which implemented this invention is demonstrated. However, the following embodiment is merely an example. The present invention is not limited to the following embodiments.

  Moreover, in each drawing referred in embodiment etc., the member which has a substantially the same function shall be referred with the same code | symbol. The drawings referred to in the embodiments and the like are schematically described. A ratio of dimensions of an object drawn in a drawing may be different from a ratio of dimensions of an actual object. The dimensional ratio of the object may be different between the drawings. The specific dimensional ratio of the object should be determined in consideration of the following description.

(First embodiment)
In this embodiment, a normal glass material, for example, a glass material that does not contain a network-forming oxide, and can be suitably manufactured even for a glass material having a composition that does not vitrify by a melting method using a container. Will be described. Specifically, according to the method of the present embodiment, for example, barium titanate glass material, lanthanum-niobium composite oxide glass material, lanthanum-niobium-aluminum composite oxide glass material, lanthanum-niobium-tantalum A composite oxide glass material, a lanthanum-tungsten composite oxide glass material, or the like can be suitably produced.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a glass material manufacturing apparatus 1 according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the glass material manufacturing apparatus 1 includes a mold 10. The molding die 10 has a molding surface 10a. The molding surface 10a is a curved surface. Specifically, the molding surface 10a has a spherical shape.

  The molding die 10 has a gas ejection hole 10b opened in the molding surface 10a. As shown in FIG. 2, in this embodiment, a plurality of gas ejection holes 10b are provided. Specifically, the plurality of gas ejection holes 10b are arranged radially from the center of the molding surface 10a.

  In addition, the shaping | molding die 10 may be comprised with the porous body which has an open cell. In that case, the gas ejection hole 10b is constituted by continuous bubbles.

  The gas ejection hole 10b is connected to a gas supply mechanism 11 such as a gas cylinder. Gas is supplied from the gas supply mechanism 11 to the molding surface 10a via the gas ejection hole 10b.

  The type of gas is not particularly limited. The gas may be, for example, air or oxygen, or an inert gas such as nitrogen gas, argon gas, or helium gas.

  When manufacturing a glass material using the manufacturing apparatus 1, first, the glass raw material lump 12 is arrange | positioned on the molding surface 10a. The glass raw material lump 12 may be, for example, a glass material raw material powder integrated by press molding or the like. The glass raw material lump 12 may be, for example, a sintered body obtained by integrating glass raw material powders by press molding or the like and sintering them. Moreover, the glass raw material lump 12 may be an aggregate of crystals having a composition equivalent to the target glass composition, for example.

  The shape of the glass raw material lump 12 is not particularly limited. The glass raw material block 12 may be, for example, a lens shape, a spherical shape, a cylindrical shape, a polygonal column shape, a rectangular parallelepiped shape, an elliptical shape, or the like.

  Next, the glass raw material block 12 is floated on the molding surface 10a by ejecting gas from the gas ejection holes 10b. That is, the glass raw material lump 12 is held in a state where the glass raw material lump 12 is not in contact with the molding surface 10a. In this state, the glass material block 12 is irradiated with laser light from the laser irradiation device 13. Thereby, the glass raw material lump 12 is heated and melted to be vitrified to obtain molten glass. Thereafter, the glass material can be obtained by cooling the molten glass. In the step of heating and melting the glass raw material lump 12 and the step of cooling until the temperature of the molten glass and further the glass material becomes at least the softening point or less, at least gas ejection is continued, and the glass raw material lump 12 and the molten glass Or it is preferable to suppress that a glass material and the molding surface 10a contact.

  In the present embodiment, an example in which the glass raw material mass 12 is heated by irradiating the glass raw material mass 12 with laser light will be described. However, in the present invention, the method of heating the glass raw material block 12 is not particularly limited to the method of irradiating laser light. For example, the glass raw material block 12 may be radiantly heated.

  By the way, in order to produce a glass material that does not contain a network-forming oxide and does not vitrify by a melting method using a container, it is necessary to rapidly cool the molten glass. For this reason, it is generally considered preferable that the temperature of the gas for suspending the glass raw material lump is lower. However, as a result of intensive studies, the present inventors have found that the homogeneity of the obtained glass material is lowered when the gas temperature is too low.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the heating mechanism 14 is provided between the gas supply mechanism 11 and the gas ejection hole 10b. For this reason, the preheated gas is supplied to the gas ejection hole 10b. Therefore, a glass material having excellent homogeneity can be produced.

  The reason why the homogeneity of the obtained glass material is improved by preheating the gas supplied to the gas ejection holes 10b is as follows. By preheating the gas supplied to the gas ejection holes 10b, the temperature of the gas in contact with the molten glass is increased. For this reason, cooling of the outer side part of molten glass is suppressed, and the temperature nonuniformity in molten glass becomes small. Therefore, it can suppress that a heterogeneous phase etc. generate | occur | produce due to the temperature difference of the center part and outer part of a molten glass. Therefore, it is considered that a glass material having excellent homogeneity can be obtained.

  From the viewpoint of obtaining a glass material having better homogeneity, the temperature of the gas supplied to the gas ejection hole 10b is preferably 100 ° C or higher, more preferably 200 ° C or higher, and 400 ° C or higher. More preferably. However, if the temperature of the gas supplied to the gas ejection hole 10b is too high, the temperature of the mold 10 may become too high. Therefore, the temperature of the gas supplied to the gas ejection hole 10b is preferably 1000 ° C. or less, and more preferably 900 ° C. or less.

  By the way, when the gas supplied to the gas ejection hole 10b is preheated like this embodiment, the temperature of the shaping | molding die 10 tends to become high. When the temperature of the mold 10 increases, the molten glass may be fused to the molding surface 10a and crystals may be generated in the glass material. Therefore, it is preferable to cool the molding die 10 so that the temperature of the molding die 10 is lower than the temperature of the gas supplied to the gas ejection holes 10b. By doing so, it is possible to achieve both excellent homogeneity and suppression of crystal formation in the glass material. The mold 10 can be cooled by flowing a coolant such as a cooling liquid or a cooling gas through a cooling pipe installed inside or outside the mold 10, for example.

  From the viewpoint of more effectively suppressing the generation of crystals in the glass material, it is more preferable that the temperature of the mold 10 be lower by 100 ° C. or more than the temperature of the gas supplied to the gas ejection holes 10b. More preferably, it is lowered. However, if the temperature of the mold 10 is too low, the gas may be excessively cooled when passing through the mold 10. Therefore, the difference between the temperature of the mold 10 and the temperature of the gas supplied to the gas ejection holes 10b is preferably 500 ° C. or less, and more preferably 400 ° C. or less. Specifically, the temperature of the mold 10 is preferably 100 ° C to 800 ° C, and more preferably 200 ° C to 700 ° C.

  The method for cooling the mold 10 is not particularly limited. For example, the mold 10 may be cooled by water cooling, or the mold 10 may be cooled using a Peltier element or the like. Further, a cooling fin may be provided on the outer peripheral surface of the mold 10 to improve the cooling performance of the mold 10.

  Hereinafter, other examples of preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described. In the following description, members having substantially the same functions as those of the first embodiment are referred to by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the glass material manufacturing apparatus 2 according to the second embodiment.

  In the first embodiment, the example in which the plurality of gas ejection holes 10b are opened on the molding surface 10a has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration. For example, like the glass material manufacturing apparatus 2 shown in FIG. 3, one gas ejection hole 10 b opened at the center of the molding surface 10 a may be provided. Even in this case, similarly to the first embodiment, a glass material having excellent homogeneity can be stably manufactured by supplying the preheated gas to the gas ejection holes 10b.

1, 2: Glass material manufacturing apparatus 10: Mold 10a: Molding surface 10b: Gas ejection hole 11: Gas supply mechanism 12: Glass raw material block 13: Laser irradiation apparatus 14: Heating mechanism

Claims (9)

The glass raw material lump is heated and melted to be vitrified in a state where the glass raw material lump is suspended and held above the forming surface by ejecting gas from a gas ejection hole opened on the molding surface of the mold . After obtaining the molten glass, comprising a step of obtaining a glass material by cooling the molten glass,
As the glass raw material lump, a press-molded body or sintered body of a raw material powder of a glass material, or an aggregate of crystals having a composition equivalent to a target glass composition,
A method for producing a glass material, wherein a preheated gas is supplied to the gas ejection holes.   The manufacturing method of the glass material of Claim 1 which makes temperature of the said shaping | molding die lower than the temperature of the gas supplied to the said gas ejection hole.   The manufacturing method of the glass material of Claim 1 or 2 which manufactures the said glass material, cooling the said shaping | molding die.   The manufacturing method of the glass material as described in any one of Claims 1-3 which sets the temperature of the gas supplied to the said gas ejection hole to 100 degreeC or more. The manufacturing method of the glass material as described in any one of Claims 1-4 which heat-melts the said glass raw material lump with a laser beam. The glass material is a barium titanate glass material, a lanthanum-niobium composite oxide glass material, a lanthanum-niobium-aluminum composite oxide glass material, a lanthanum-niobium-tantalum composite oxide glass material, or a lanthanum-tungsten composite. The manufacturing method of the glass material as described in any one of Claims 1-5 which is an oxide type glass material. The glass raw material lump is heated and melted to be vitrified in a state where the glass raw material lump is suspended and held above the forming surface by ejecting gas from a gas ejection hole opened on the molding surface of the mold . An apparatus for producing a glass material by cooling the molten glass after obtaining the molten glass,
The glass raw material lump is a press-molded body or sintered body of a raw material powder of a glass material, or an aggregate of crystals having a composition equivalent to a target glass composition,
An apparatus for producing a glass material, comprising a heating mechanism for heating a gas supplied to the gas ejection holes. The manufacturing apparatus of the glass material of Claim 7 provided with the laser irradiation apparatus for heat-melting the said glass raw material lump. The glass material is a barium titanate glass material, a lanthanum-niobium composite oxide glass material, a lanthanum-niobium-aluminum composite oxide glass material, a lanthanum-niobium-tantalum composite oxide glass material, or a lanthanum-tungsten composite. The manufacturing apparatus of the glass material of Claim 7 or 8 which is an oxide type glass material.

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