Abstract: Artistic panes having flat and planar margins with laterally offset central regions and deformations, as well as devices and methods for making the same, are shown and described. Devices and assemblies for manufacturing such artistic panes incorporate support members and raised boundary members, and can incorporate masses and/or piles of powder to create various deformations in the artistic panes. Methods of manufacturing such artistic panes can incorporate slump processes, sag processes and rolling processes.

Abstract: The process according to the invention reduces the effort required to shape a glass piece. In this process a liquid glass piece is provided on a structured supporting surface of an electrically conducting base. A voltage is applied across the liquid glass piece by connecting a voltage source between a contact position on the liquid glass piece and the electrically conducting base. The apparatus for performing the process has an electrically conducting base on which the liquid glass piece is supported and a device for applying a voltage between a contact position on the liquid glass piece and the electrically conducting base.

Abstract: The method of supporting and transporting hot flat glass on a gas bed for ceramicizing includes arranging a number of spaced-apart porous or perforated planar segments to form a base with a gas-permeable support surface so that slits, which are narrower than the planar segments, are formed between them, forcing gas through the porous or perforated planar segments and conducting the gas away through the slits between them so as to form the gas bed with no static pressure zones and with a parabolic pressure distribution and producing a predetermined temperature profile for ceramicizing through which the hot flat glass is transported on the gas bed without deformation and without any contact between it and the base. The resulting glass ceramic has smoother surfaces without pits or deformations.

Abstract: The suction feeder for glass processing includes a housing containing a material; a heatable noble metal or noble metal alloy feed line embedded in the housing in a thermally insulated fashion; a connection element at one end of the feed line for connection with a molten glass supply device and an outlet element for operative engagement with a suction device at the other end of the feed line. To prevent aspiration of bubbles through the feed line the material together with the housing surrounds the heatable feed line and has a composition and/or structure such that in operation a negative pressure can be produced on an outer side of the feed line. Preferably this negative pressure is lower than a minimum internal pressure within the feed line that is established during a suction process.

Abstract: A lithium-aluminosilicate glass ceramic is transformed by a suitable heat treatment into a glass ceramic comprising at least 80 vol.-% of keatite mixed crystals. This may be utilized for the preparation of optical or mechanical high-precision parts having a high temperature resistance, a good stability and compatibility with components consisting of metals having a small coefficient of thermal expansion based on nickel and iron, such as Invar®.

Abstract: An apparatus for bending a glass sheet includes a final hearth bed. This final hearth bed has a top surface that is upwardly convexly curved along a plane perpendicular to an axis of the glass sheet. The top surface has an upstream end, a downstream end that is at a level lower than that of the upstream end, and an intermediate point defined therebetween. The top surface has (a) a first section that extends from the upstream end to the intermediate point and that is parallel with the axis or upwardly inclined relative to the axis and (b) a second section that extends from the intermediate point to the downstream end and that is downwardly inclined relative to the axis. The final hearth bed has a bottom surface that is along the first direction or inclined downwardly relative to the first direction.

Abstract: A method is provided for forming a photoactive coating having a photoabsorption band in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The method includes depositing a precursor composition over at least a portion of a float glass ribbon in a molten metal bath by a CVD coating device. The precursor composition includes a titania precursor material and at least one other precursor material selected from chromium (Cr), vanadium (V), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y), niobium (Nb), molybdenum (Mo), ruthenium (Ru), tungsten (W), silver (Ag), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), rhenium (Re), and mixtures thereof.

Abstract: A method for producing powders that consist of substantially spherical particles from a material such as glass, ceramics or plastic that produces a highly viscous melt that solidifies at a glass transition temperature Tg or at a solidification temperature Ts. The inventive method comprises the following steps: (a) producing a melt of a viscosity ? in the range of from 0.1 to 100 Ns/m2; (b) atomizing the melt using a first gas, the first gas having a temperature TA?Tg or ?0.5Ts at the outlet of the nozzle and (c) cooling off the particles produced by atomization in a cooling section downstream of the nozzle using a coolant, the temperature of the coolant being smaller than Ts or Tg.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a quartz glass blank for an optical component for transmission of ultraviolet radiation of a wavelength of 250 nm or shorter, and to a use of the quartz glass blank in microlithography in combination with ultraviolet radiation of a wavelength of 250 nm or shorter. Moreover, the invention relates to a procedure for manufacture of the quartz glass blank. A quartz glass blank of the described type should show little induced absorption and be optimized with respect to compaction and decompaction. The quartz glass blank according to the invention is characterized by the following properties: a glass structure essentially free of oxygen defect sites, an H2-content in the range of 0.1×1016 molecules/cm3 to 4.0×1016 molecules/cm3, an OH-content in the range of 125 wt-ppm to 450 wt-ppm, an SiH group-content of less than 5×1016 molecules/cm3, a refractive index inhomogeneity, ?n, of less than 2 ppm, and a stress birefringence of less than 2 nm/cm.

Abstract: A silica glass member for semiconductor in which each concentration of Fe, Cu, Cr and Ni is 5 ppb or less and the concentration of an OH group is 30 ppm or less and which has a viscosity of 1013.0 poise or more at 1200° C. is provided as a silica glass member for semiconductor having high heat-resistance and higher purity.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide a highly uniform low cost production worthy solution for manufacturing low propagation loss optical waveguides on a substrate. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a method of forming a PSG optical waveguide on an undercladding layer of a substrate that includes forming at least one silicate glass optical core on said undercladding layer using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process including a silicon source gas, an oxygen source gas, and a phosphorus source gas, wherein the oxygen source gas and silicon source gas have a ratio of oxygen atoms to silicon atoms greater than 20:1.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a quartz glass blank for an optical component for transmission of ultraviolet radiation of a wavelength of 250 nm or shorter, and to a use of the quartz glass blank in microlithography in combination with ultraviolet radiation of a wavelength of 250 nm or shorter. Moreover, the invention relates to a procedure for manufacture of the quartz glass blank. A quartz glass blank of the described type should show little induced absorption and be optimized with respect to compaction and decompaction. The quartz glass blank according to the invention is characterized by the following properties: a glass structure essentially free of oxygen defect sites, an H2-content in the range of 0.1×1016 molecules/cm3 to 4.0×1016 molecules/cm3, an OH-content in the range of 125 wt-ppm to 450 wt-ppm, an SiH group-content of less than 5×1016 molecules/cm3, a refractive index inhomogeneity, ?n, of less than 2 ppm, and a stress birefringence of less than 2 nm/cm.

Abstract: A method and a machine for the production of hollow glassware articles, by the blow-and-blow, press-and-blow, press-and-blow paste mold and direct-press processes in a glassware forming machine including single or multiple machine sections each having single or multiple-cavity, comprising: forming a parison in an inverted orientation, into a blank mold and a first transferable and open-able neck ring mold held by an inverting apparatus having a first and a second diametrically opposed arms, each arm holding a transferable and open-able neck ring mold; inverting the parison held by the first transferable and open-able neck ring mold, by rotating the first arm 180° to an upright orientation at an intermediate station, while the second arm with a second transferable and open-able neck ring mold is simultaneously placed at the parison forming station; transferring the first transferable and open-able neck ring mold holding the parison in an upright orientation, from the intermediate station, to a blow mold statio

Abstract: The present invention provides an optical fiber preform manufacturing method and a burner apparatus employed for this method. In this manufacturing method, when glass particles are synthesized in an oxy-hydrogen flame emitted from a burner to form a porous optical fiber preform by depositing glass particles in the radial direction of a starting member, the relationship between the flow rate vm (m/sec) of a source material gas or a mixed gas of the source material gas and an additive gas discharged from the burner, and the flow rate vs (m/sec) of an inert gas is such that ?0.06 vm+1.4?vs??0.02 vm+1.8, and vs?0.40, while the relationship between the flow volume Vm (1/min) of the source material gas discharged from the burner and the flow volume Vs (1/min) of the inert gas is such that Vs/Vm?0.2.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a solid preform by moving a heat source parallel to the longitudinal axis of a substrate tube, whose inner surface is coated with one or more doped or undoped glass layers, so as to collapse the substrate tube into the solid preform in a number of passes, with an etchant being supplied to the interior of the substrate tube after a number of passes of the heat source.

Abstract: A method for constructing a mirror blank, including arranging hollow glass balls, on a front face sheet, and in close proximity to each other to permit fusing upon expansion; restricting the expansion of the hollow glass balls with a bounding structure during expansion of the hollow glass balls to force the hollow glass balls into a densely packed array of cells; applying heat to soften the hollow glass balls and increase the pressure within the hollow glass balls as the hollow glass balls fuse with each other during expansion, forming cells, wherein as a result of fusing, the hollow glass balls contact the front face sheet as a result of the increased pressure within the hollow glass balls; annealing and cooling the mirror blank to below annealing temperature associated with the hollow glass balls; and venting the cells.

Abstract: An optical fiber and an optical fiber preform having optical characteristics, such as the wavelength dispersion, close to design values by controlling the amount of change in the refractive index in the core, thereby realizing high-quality and high-speed transmission, and manufacturing methods therefor. The optical fiber or the optical fiber preform is manufactured in a manner such that at each position in the area in which the relative refractive index of the core with respect to the cladding is 80% or higher of the maximum value of the relative refractive index, the absolute value of the rate of change of the relative refractive index with respect to the position along the diameter of the cladding is 0.5 or less, where the position along the diameter of the cladding is defined by percentage with respect to the diameter.

Abstract: A molding assembly, that includes: a plurality of support pillars fixedly attached to a support structure, wherein each support pillar includes a recessed seat; a mold support member, and; a flexible ring for holding a mold in contact with the mold support member, wherein the flexible ring, while holding the mold, rests upon the recessed seat of the support pillar.

Abstract: A substrate for use as a disk substrate in a hard disk drive or the like, an information recording medium such as a magnetic disk, and a starting material glass plate which is a starting material of the substrate for information recording media. The forming conditions of the starting material glass plate are controlled such that the starting material glass plate has a long-wavelength waviness of not more than 6 nm. This starting material glass plate is polished so as to have a long-wavelength waviness of not more than 6 nm using CeO2 abrasive grains having a mean grain diameter of not less than 0.0l ?m and a 90% diameter of the volume grain size distribution of not less than 0.02 ?m. The resulting substrate for an information recording medium has an excellent planarity, can be obtained in a short time and with a low polishing amount, and the resulting information recording medium is able to cope with increased data zone recording density.

Abstract: This invention provides a black low thermal expansion high specific rigidity ceramic sintered body having a black tone, manifesting very small thermal expansion at room temperature and abounding in rigidity and specific rigidity, and a method for the production thereof. The black low thermal expansion high specific rigidity ceramic sintered body is characterized by having a chemical composition comprising 8.0–17.2 mass % of MgO, 22.0–38.0 mass % of Al2O3, 49.5–65.0 mass % of SiO2, a total of 0.1–2 mass % of one or more transition elements as reduced to oxides, and 0–2.5 mass % of Li2O, and having the mass ratios satisfy the relationships of (SiO2?8×Li2O)/MgO?3.0 and (SiO2?8×Li2O)/Al2O3?1.2. The method for the production of a black low thermal expansion high specific rigidity ceramic sintered body of this invention is characterized by forming the sintered body in an atmosphere of a non-oxidizing gas at a temperature in the range of 1200–1500° C.