Abstract: Methods for reducing the oxygen concentration in an enclosure including a platinum-containing vessel through which molten glass is flowing are disclosed. The methods include injecting hydrogen gas into an oxygen-containing atmosphere flowing between the enclosure and a reaction chamber. The atmosphere is heated with a heating element in the reaction chamber, whereupon oxygen in the oxygen-containing atmosphere reacts with the hydrogen. In other embodiments, the hydrogen gas and oxygen-containing atmosphere can be exposed to a catalyst comprising platinum positioned in the reaction chamber.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a float-glass manufacturing apparatus including a float bath and a heat treatment furnace, in which the heat treatment furnace includes: a dross box including a plurality of lift-out rolls; an annealing furnace including a plurality of lehr rolls; a first partitioning part; a second partitioning part; a gas ejection nozzle; and a guide member.

Abstract: A method for finishing a glass or ceramic article includes applying a force to the glass or ceramic article. The force is applied to the glass or ceramic article at least when the glass or ceramic article is at a temperature that is greater than or equal to a creep temperature of the glass or ceramic article. Holding the force to the glass or ceramic article as the glass or ceramic article is cooled to a temperature that is less than the creep temperature of the glass or ceramic article.

Abstract: Method for manufacturing a flush vehicle glazing that allows to achieve a perfect alignment between the adjacent sections of the glazing vehicle area in the final assembled product by providing a vehicle glass panel which comprise at least two adjacent sections of the vehicle glazing area in one single panel, followed by bending the vehicle glass panel and LASER cutting before cooling thereof.

Abstract: A hot-forming device is provided for producing glass containers from a glass tube. The device includes a rotary table mounted so as to be rotationally movable and an assigned drive motor for driving the rotary table. The rotary table includes several holding chucks for holding workpieces distributed around the circumference of the rotary table. The rotary table has a coolant channel that is fluid-tight and through which a coolant can flow to cool.

Abstract: A nozzle strip for a blow box for thermally prestressing glass panes, which nozzle strip has a row of nozzles each having a nozzle inlet and a nozzle opening for impinging on a surface of a glass pane with a stream of air through the nozzle openings, wherein the nozzle openings are arranged on merlon-like elevations of a side surface of the nozzle strip.

Abstract: Disclosed are embodiments of a method of forming a curved glass article. In the method, a mold having a curved surface is provided. A self-adhesive layer is disposed on the curved surface. A glass sheet is bent into conformity with the curved surface at a temperature less than the glass transition temperature of the glass sheet. The glass sheet includes a first major surface and a second major surface in which the second major surface is opposite to the first major surface. The first major surface is adhered to the self-adhesive layer. A frame is bonded to the second major surface of the glass sheet, and the glass sheet is removed from the self-adhesive layer. A system for performing the method and a mold having a self-adhesive layer are also disclosed.

Abstract: An apparatus for optical fiber manufacturing process is provided, including a raw material providing structure, a dopant providing structure, and a preform forming substrate tube. The dopant providing structure is disposed at a downstream side of the raw material providing structure and in communication with the raw material providing structure. The dopant providing structure includes an outer tube, a first inner tube, a first dopant providing container, a second inner tube, and a second dopant providing container. The first inner tube is disposed in the outer tube. The first dopant providing container is disposed in the first inner tube. The second inner tube is disposed in the outer tube at a downstream of the first inner tube. The second dopant providing container is disposed in the second inner tube. The preform forming substrate tube is disposed at a downstream side of the dopant providing structure.

Abstract: A submerged combustion melter is arranged with a melting chamber, which may be cylindrical, and at least five submerged combustion burners.

Abstract: A glass cutting line includes automatic remnant storage and retrieval including cutting table with integrated squaring stop and y-break breaking bar facilitating sub-plate cutting. The cutting table is configured for sub-plate cutting mode which provides the ability to cut portions of a stock sheet and release the cut portion in the form of a remnant and or individual workpieces to breakout before the entire sheet is finished scoring without the sub-plate leaving the cutting table.

Abstract: An automated large outside diameter preform tipping process. A zone of the preform is heated inside a furnace and softened. The preform tip is shaped and the process is controlled by the movement of the glass above and below the heating zone and by sensing the weight of the lower part of the preform, which in effect is a measure of the viscosity of the softened material. Once the correct viscosity is reached, the bottom holder is moved away from the top holder with a non-linear, accelerated velocity profile (derived from the FEM simulation of glass flow) which is precisely programmed and controlled so that the preform tip is optimally shaped (usually short and sharp tipped) with minimum waste and waveguide distortion when drawn into a fiber. The same concept of the non-linear, accelerated velocity profile can also be applied to other tipping processes such as horizontal preform tipping processes.

Abstract: The present invention concerns a method of determination of specific points of a rotary fibre forming spinner wheel (10) used in a fibre forming device (1), said method comprising the following steps: obtaining measurements of temperatures of the fibre forming spinner wheel obtained by means of a temperature measuring device (40) adapted to take measurements of temperatures of the spinner wheel at a plurality of angular positions of said measuring device in order to supply data to at least one calculation unit (30, 45) that constructs a curve representing the temperature as a function of the angular position of a temperature measuring device; processing said measurements by effecting a calculation of the second derivative of the curve of the temperature as a function of the angular position by means of a calculation unit (30); searching for at least one specific point for which the second derivative satisfies a predefined condition.

Abstract: A method for heat strengthening or tempering glass sheets of a glass load containing several glass sheets, in which the glass sheets are heated in a furnace to a tempering temperature and the glass load is transferred at a transfer speed (W) away from the furnace into a tempering unit, in which the actual quenching is conducted by blasting cooling air onto both surfaces of the glass sheets. By an initial blasting unit, located between the furnace and the quenching unit and divided into initial blasting zones in the direction transverse to the motion of the glass, is blasted compressed air onto the surface of the leading and trailing edges of a glass sheet, to the direction of which normal it is desired to straighten the end in order to decrease end-edge kink.

Abstract: A device for picking up, shaping, and placing a thin glass pane, includes a frame with an upper side and a lower side, which is suitable to be directed at a glass pane with a thickness of less than 1 mm, and which is provided with a plurality of picking up pins that are arranged substantially parallel to one another and whose end directed at the glass pane is equipped with a suction cup, wherein the picking up pins are movable along their direction of extension independent of one another in order to adapt the arrangement of the suction cups to an intended shape of the glass pane.

Abstract: A system for use in glass production technology such as for production of glass packaging, glassware, glass home equipments, wherein the system allows all kinds of design additions such as color, pattern, texture, decor, seal and form changing processes to be applied to the product without requiring re-firing of the product, after removal of the product from the moulds in the production lines while the product is still hot and the temperature is kept constant.

Abstract: A system for positioning an optical preform in a furnace is provided that includes an upper muffle and a downfeed handle assembly with a tube defining a first end and a second end, the second end extending into the upper muffle. A handle is disposed within the tube. A second end of the handle extends into the upper muffle and a seal assembly is positioned around both the tube and the handle. The first end of the handle extends through the seal assembly and a drive assembly is coupled with the downfeed handle.

Abstract: In known methods for producing a glass component, a void-containing intermediate product containing doped or non-doped SiO2 is inserted into a sheath tube composed of glass, which has a longitudinal axis and an inner bore, and is thermally treated therein. In order to subject the intermediate product to a thermal and/or reactive treatment that is reproducible and uniform in its effect from this starting point, it is proposed in one embodiment that into the sheath tube's inner bore a first gas-permeable gas diffuser is inserted which is displaceable along the sheath tube's longitudinal axis and is pressed against the intermediate product during the thermal treatment.

Abstract: A method for homogenizing glass includes the method: providing a cylindrical blank composed of the glass having a cylindrical outer surface that extends along a longitudinal axis of the blank between a first end face and a second end face, forming a shear zone in the blank by softening a longitudinal section of the blank and subjecting it to a thermal-mechanical intermixing treatment, and displacing the shear zone along the longitudinal axis of the blank. To enable a radial mixing within the shear zone in addition to the tangential mixing with the lowest possible time and energy input, starting from this method, cylindrical sections of the blank are adjacent to the shear zone on both sides, the first cylindrical section having a first central axis and the second cylindrical section having a second central axis, the first central axis and the second central axis being temporarily non-coaxial with each other.

Abstract: Provided is a method of producing a glass roll including: a conveying step of conveying a glass film (G) along a longitudinal direction thereof; a cutting step of irradiating the glass film (G) with a laser beam (L) from a laser irradiation apparatus (19) while conveying the glass film (G) by the conveying step, to thereby separate the glass film (G) into a non-product portion (Gc) and a product portion (Gd); and a take-up step of taking up the product portion (Gd) into a roll shape, to thereby form a glass roll (R). The cutting step includes a step of winding a thread-like peeled material (Ge) generated from an end portion of the product portion (Gd) in a width direction around a rod-shaped collecting member (23), and leading the wound thread-like peeled material (Ge) in a predetermined conveying direction (PX) by a leading device (24).

Abstract: An actuating mechanism control method for a glass plate tempering process, comprising: after a glass plate is conveyed into a heating furnace, a monitoring unit monitors in real time energy consumed by a heating element of the heating furnace, and sends the energy consumed to a control unit to compare with a set threshold; and when the energy consumed by the heating element of the heating furnace is greater than or equal to the set threshold, the control unit sends an instruction to an actuating mechanism to control actions of the actuating mechanism to complete a corresponding tempering process procedure. Through the method that the monitoring unit monitors in real time the energy consumed by the heating element of the heating furnace, a heating procedure of the glass plate is more scientifically and precisely controlled, and, therefore, a discharging moment of the glass plate can be accurately determined.