Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for low-contamination melting of high-purity, aggressive and/or high-melting glass or glass-ceramic. According to the invention, for this purpose a melt is heated in a crucible or melting skull crucible by means of high-frequency radiation and is mixed or homogenized in the melting crucible. It is preferable for a gas nozzle, from which gas bubbles, e.g. oxygen bubbles (known as O2 bubbling), escape into the melt, to be provided at the base of the crucible. This alone makes it possible to achieve surprising multiple benefits in the melting skull crucible. Firstly, unmelted batch which drops into the melt in solid form, for example from above, is melted down more quickly as a result of more intensive mixing with the liquid fraction of the melt, secondly the temperature distribution in the melt is made more even, thirdly a uniform distribution or mixing of different glass constituents is achieved, and fourthly the redox state of the glass can be adjusted.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for low-contamination melting of high-purity, aggressive and/or high-melting glass or glass-ceramic are provided. For this purpose, a melt is heated in a crucible or melting skull crucible by means of high-frequency radiation and is mixed or homogenized in the melting crucible. A gas nozzle, from which gas bubbles, e.g. oxygen bubbles (known as O2 bubbling), escape into the melt, is provided at the base of the crucible.