Abstract: A method of making a vehicle windshield or other window. An opaque layer (e.g., enamel or water-based) is applied to a glass sheet and then “fired” or cured. The opaque layer is preferably black or dark in color. Thereafter, the sheet with the opaque layer thereon is cut into a desired windshield shape, along a cutting line which extends through both the glass sheet and the opaque layer formed thereon. As a result, on the cut glass sheet the opaque layer extends all the way up to the peripheral edge thereof. In vehicle windshield embodiments, the cut sheet is laminated to another glass sheet via at least a polymer based interlayer in order to form the vehicle windshield.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for manufacturing optical components. A burner generates soot, and a surface area collector collects the soot. The burner is disposed such that the soot collected within the surface area collector is substantially not reheated by subsequently deposited soot. Magnetic forces direct the soot to desired location(s) within the surface area collector. The surface area collector operates at relatively low temperatures sufficient to retain rather volatile substances, such as fluorine, in the soot.

Abstract: The invention relates to a process for the production of internally-hardened glass tubes, in which in a tube-drawing process for the production of glass tubes that is known in the art, a coated drawing tool, for example in the process according to Danner a coated mandrel or in the process according to Vello or in A-drawing process a coated needle, is used, whose coating releases coating material upon contact with the inside surface of the tube that is produced and accumulates on the inside glass surface. The chemical resistance is increased by this internal hardening. The invention also relates to devices for implementing this process and uses of the tubes that are produced according to these processes.

Abstract: In a method of manufacturing a chemical reinforced glass substrate, consideration is previously made about a relationship between conditions of chemical reinforcement for a glass substrate and deformation caused by the chemical reinforcement at an edge portion of the glass substrate. The glass substrate is chemically reinforced on the basis of the relationship so that an edge profile is shaped into a desirable edge profile during the chemical reinforcement. The resultant chemical reinforced glass substrate is flat and smooth in a wide area and effective to improve a recording density and to avoid head crashes.

Abstract: A filter material for reducing the content of harmful substances in tobacco smoke. The filter material comprises a ground and not additionally activated expanded clay produced without adding foreign substances, and zeolite as the filter material. The filter is suitable for tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos, and for smoking articles such as tobacco pipes and cigarette and cigar holders.

Abstract: An oxidation and corrosion resistant coating is applied to glass forming equipment by physical vapor deposition. The coating material is preferably aluminum oxide.

Abstract: Burners (40) for producing fused silica boules are provided. The burners employ a tube-in-tube (301-306) design with flats (56, 50) on some of the tubes (305, 301) being used to limit the cross-sectional area of certain passages (206, 202) within the burner and/or to atomize a silicon-containing, liquid source material, such as OMCTS. To avoid the possibility of flashback, the burner has separate passages for fuel (205) and oxygen (204, 206), i.e., the burner employs nozzle mixing, rather than premixing, of the fuel and oxygen. The burners are installed in burner holes (26) formed in the crown (20) of a furnace and form a seal with those holes so that ambient air cannot be entrained into the furnace through the holes. An external air cooled jacket (60) can be used to hold the temperature of the burner below a prescribed upper limit, e.g., 400° C.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for controlling a heat treatment in the process of fabricating a high purity silica glass via a sol-gel process using a low temperature heater having an inhalation line and an exhaust line. Accordingly, the method includes the steps of (a) identifying whether or not the diameter of the exhaust line is varied; (b) controlling the mass flow of the process gas according to the changed diameter of the exhaust line in step (a); (c) measuring an exhaust gas velocity discharged through the exhaust line; (d) comparing the exhaust gas velocity measured in the step (c) with the exhaust gas velocity after the scale of the exhaust line is varied; and, (e) repeating steps (b)-(d) if the comparison result in step (d) is different.

Abstract: Voltage is applied between electrodes (14a, 14b) under UV irradiation to perform a UV excitation poling, thereby producing microcrystal particles at a core unit (10a). Accordingly, second-order optical nonlinearity is developed at the core unit (10a) of an optical fiber (10). Under a high-temperature condition, a second-order optical nonlinearity can be imparted by a comparatively low-voltage UV excitation poling when a second-order optical nonlinearity decreases.

Abstract: The oxides-enclosed fine glass particles are arranged such that two or more pieces of at least two kinds of enclosing particles, which comprise oxides, double oxides, or salts of oxyacids, or double oxides or double salts thereof, are enclosed in each of the fine glass particles. The fine particles can be easily manufactured by mixing a powder material of glass with a powder material of oxides which comprise oxides, double oxides, or salts of oxyacids, or double oxides or double salts thereof that are not made to glass; converting the thus obtained mixture of the materials into a mixture in a vapor-state by supplying the thermal plasma thereto; and quickly cooling the mixture in the vapor-state. Highly-scattered fine particles of oxides can be easily obtained from the fine particles, and thus a plurality of kinds of fine particles of oxides can be evenly and uniformly mixed in a small amount with a mother material without being unevenly scattered.

Abstract: An add/drop filter for optical wave energy incorporates a Bragg grating in a very narrow waist region defined by merged lengths of elongated optical fibers. Light is propagated into the waist region via adiabatically tapered fibers and is transformed from two longitudinally adjacent fibers into two orthogonal modes within the air-glass waveguide of the waist and reflected off the grating from one fiber into the other. The geometry of the waist region is such that the reflected drop wavelength is polarization independent, without lossy peaks in the wavelength band of interest. Additionally, back reflection are shifted out of the wavelength band of interest. High strength gratings are written by photosensitizing the waist region fibers by constantly in-diffusing pressurized hydrogen or deuterium. For narrow spectral bandwidth gratings, dimensional variations must be minimized or compensated, and the grating is apodized by both a.c. and d.c. variations in writing beams at a net constant power.

Abstract: A method for heat treating a synthetic quartz glass for optical use in a heating furnace, that comprises covering the surroundings of a synthetic quartz glass body with a SiO2 powder having a mean dissolved hydrogen molecule concentration of 1×1019 molecules/cm3 or higher, and then heat treating the body.

Abstract: An article of relatively pure silica, and a furnace and method of producing the article. The article is produced by collecting molten silica particles in a refractory furnace in which at least a portion of the refractory has been exposed to a halogen-containing gas to react with contaminating metal ions in the refractory.

Abstract: During a process for bending and quenching a window pane, the latter is bent to the desired shape using a forming frame. Next, by means of this same forming frame, the entire surface of both sides of the bent window pane is rapidly cooled, in a quenching station which follows the bending station, by blowing cold air using blowing boxes provided with blowing nozzles. While the entire surface is being rapidly cooled, the edge regions of the window pane which rest on the forming frame are subjected to a blast of additional cold air by the suitable supply of compressed air to the openings passing through the forming frame.

Abstract: Apparatus suitable for vitrifying nuclear waste comprises a tunable microwave cavity connected by a first wave guide to a source of microwave energy; cooling coils for cooling the exterior of the cavity; a hopper for loading particulate fusible material to the interior of the cavity; within the cavity a crucible made of melted and re-solidified fusible particulate material; an exit-chamber connected by a second waveguide to a second microwave source; and a pipe for supplying argon gas to the exit chamber so that a plasma torch can be generated. The separating of the crucible form the cavity walls by unmelted material gives significant advantages in case of cleaning and reduced energy consumption.

Abstract: A process for fabricating a face plate for a flat panel display such as a field emission cathode type display is disclosed, the face plate having integral spacer support structures. Also disclosed is a product made by the aforesaid process.

Abstract: Tobacco is treated with an effective amount of one or more bactericidal gases before or during curing to reduce or eliminate bacteria, bacterial activity and/or fungal activity from tobacco leaves, and/or to reduce or eliminate the amount of tobacco-specific nitrosamine or bacterial endotoxin in cured tobacco leaves. Cured tobacco is treated with an effective amount of one or more bactericidal gases before or during storage to reduce or eliminate bacteria, bacterial activity and/or fungal activity from the cured tobacco.

Abstract: An assembly of rib structures sandwiched between a dielectric glass layer and a glass substrate for use in a flat panel display, such as plasma addressed liquid crystal (PALC) displays, is formed by a number of methods. One method includes molding thermoplastic glass frit containing paste into rib structures, transferring the rib structures to a thin transparent layer of a thermoplastic dielectric glass frit containing composition on a drum, and transferring the rib structures with the thin transparent dielectric glass layer to a glass substrate having metallic electrodes already formed thereon.

Abstract: Molten glass has a liquid level located at a higher level than lower ends of an uprising pipe and a downfalling. In addition, a contacting portion of the uprising pipe or the downfalling pipe and a brick receiver on an upstream or downstream pit for supporting the uprising or downfalling pipe, or a joint in the brick receiver is filled with sealing material.

Abstract: Methods of reducing the content of and preventing formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines in harvested leafy plants such as tobacco and marijuana, are disclosed. The methods are directed to subjecting the plant to microwave radiation, at appropriate times in the cure cycle. With tobacco, products suitable for human consumption, such as cigarettes, cigars, etc., can be made in accordance with the present invention, having contents of tobacco-specific nitrosamines on a par with fresh-cut, green tobacco. In preferred embodiments, the resultant tobacco products are dried, golden-yellow leaves having almost negligible amounts of the known carcinogens NNN and NNK, in comparison to conventionally cured tobacco.