Abstract: A process for manufacturing glass filaments in which the bushing bottom plate has tips depending therefrom and each tip has a plurality of orifices from which glass filaments are drawn. The tips flood individually on start-up or during operation, and the flood results in a single composite filament being formed from the orifices of that tip. The composite filament beads down rapidly and is subsequently separated into individual filaments by the use of a fluid spray directed against the composite filament at the tip lower face. The fluid spray is utilized to momentarily quench the composite filament and is terminated once separation occurs. Subsequent filament drawing is accomplished without the use of a cooling fluid and by the use of known heat exchange means, e.g., a flow of cooling gas.

Abstract: End caps of the tank are generally spherical adjacent the axis of the tank and frusto-conical adjacent the circumference of the tank to eliminate voids normally occurring in the backfill under fully hemispherical end caps.