Abstract: A transport guide, in the form of a conduit, for a molten glass transport cup is comprised of a glass contact material that supports the permeable flow of cooling gas from an outer surface to an inner surface of the conduit. When a molten glass charge is received in the conduit, the permeable flow of the cooling gas through the conduit fluidly displaces the glass charge radially inwardly away from the inner surface of the conduit to create a thermal break between the glass charge and the glass contact material. This thermal break helps minimize heat flow out of the molten glass charge. In this way, the molten glass charge can be received within the conduit of the transport cup, and in certain applications transported within the cup from one location to another location, while helping to preserve thermal homogeneity of the glass charge.

Abstract: A molten glass transport cup includes a conduit having an inlet and an outlet, and an endcap to cover or close, and uncover or open, the conduit outlet. The cup also may include a fluid exhaust outlet between the conduit and the endcap, and one or more fluid supply passages having one or more interior inlets located radially inwardly of the exhaust outlet. A molten glass transporter may include the cup and a conduit carrier including a sleeve at least partially circumscribing the cup. A related method may include receiving a molten glass charge in the cup in contact with an inner surface of the conduit, supplying fluid into the cup to displace at least a portion of the glass charge away from the transport cup, controlling an amount of the fluid between the charge and the transport cup, and moving the endcap to permit the charge to exit the conduit.

Abstract: A method of providing glass from a glass melting furnace to at least one mold, including providing an uninterrupted glass communication path from an outlet of the glass melting furnace to the at least one mold, and pressurizing the path at a location downstream of the outlet to move molten glass into the at least one mold. A related system, apparatus, and molding equipment are also disclosed.

Abstract: A system and method for use in decoding a dot code carried by a glass substrate or container. The method comprises converting an image of a dot code to a grayscale image to remove effects of at least one of color of the glass substrate or color of ambient light, where the image includes a plurality of circular dots; detecting edges of the circular dots in the grayscale image to produce an edge-detected image; filtering the edge-detected image to produce a filtered image; applying a Close transform to convert open instances of the circular dots to closed instances of the circular dots; and identifying quantity and position of all of the circular dots. The method may further include applying a transform to remove background noise from the filtered image and/or filling all the closed instances of the circular dots.

Abstract: A method for thermal imaging includes extracting pixel intensity data from a plurality of images corresponding to electromagnetic radiation emitted from one or more targets, creating an array for each image pixel in the plurality of images, wherein each pixel array represents a distribution of intensity data from corresponding pixels in each of the images, removing from each pixel array an amount of intensity data such that a remaining amount of intensity data represents an approximate equivalent to a distribution of intensity data uncontaminated by interference; and generating a thermal image representing the one or more targets based on the remaining amount of intensity data in each pixel array.

Abstract: A method for thermal imaging includes extracting pixel intensity data from a plurality of images corresponding to electromagnetic radiation emitted from one or more targets, creating an array for each image pixel in the plurality of images, wherein each pixel array represents a distribution of intensity data from corresponding pixels in each of the images, removing from each pixel array an amount of intensity data such that a remaining amount of intensity data represents an approximate equivalent to a distribution of intensity data uncontaminated by interference; and generating a thermal image representing the one or more targets based on the remaining amount of intensity data in each pixel array.

Abstract: A yaw control system is provided for use in a hypersonic airborne mobile platform, for example a re-entry vehicle. The system includes an active movable yaw control flap positioned between passive/fixed yaw ear surfaces that border or frame the active yaw flaps. The yaw control system includes an active yaw control flap embedded between passive/fixed yaw ear surfaces. The retracted active yaw control flap and passive/fixed yaw ear surfaces provide passive yaw damping during atmosphere reentry, bank-to-turn steering and midcourse fly-out/glide steering. The active yaw control flaps are preferably arranged on opposing sides of a re-entry vehicle, and may be independently extended to provide for steering the vehicle. The active yaw control flaps provide for active yaw control skid-to-turn terminal guidance to achieve a desired level of accuracy, such as needed when using the vehicle as a missile to strike a target.