Abstract: A method and system is provided for monitoring manufacturing equipment and, more particularly, for monitoring manufacturing equipment in a semiconductor fabrication facility using existing tool elements. The method includes operating a tool working at an operating mode such that at least one of its control parameters is outside of a normal operating range, and measuring the at least on of the control parameters of the tool working at the operating mode outside of the normal operating range. The method further includes detecting a change to a condition of the tool based on the measuring of the at least one control parameter.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for melting vitrifiable materials employs a melting tank for containing a molten bath with an upper surface. The tank has a floor and side walls and channels for discharging molten materials. A crown is situated above the floor and vitrifiable materials are introduced onto the upper surface of the molten bath. A plurality of electrodes having a selected shape and position are situated inside the tank for melting the vitrifiable materials with electric current. The electrodes rest on the floor and extend across the furnace to the opposite wall so as to reduce the head of the molten bath and consequently reduce melting time and energy consumption.

Abstract: A glass melting tank with at least one pair of heating electrodes projecting into the glass melt and a process for melting glass are described. The glass melting tank has, at least in the area of the melt, a narrowed cross section area and the glass melting tank has at least one heating electrode in front of and a corresponding heating electrode behind the narrowed cross section area and in this way an increase in the temperature of the melt can be achieved in the narrowed area. A preferred application is the refining of glass melts.

Abstract: In a glass melting furnace, a radiation screen wall is installed between a melting area and a refining area with a refining bank. This radiation screen wall leaves a flow path above the melt surface of the glass bath for the return flow of at least part of the combustion gases from the refining area to the melting area. In order to suppress a return flow of already refined and very hot glass melt from the refining area into a melting area, but still allow the charging material to melt completely as early as possible, the furnace is operated to produce at least one upward current between the middle of the melting area and the front face of the refining bank in the glass melt.

Abstract: A melting furnace for the thermal treatment of special waste materials containing heavy metal and dioxin is provided. The melting furnace includes a main furnace vessel, the main furnace vessel having a melting end for receiving a melt, and a gas chamber above the melt. The melting furnace further includes at least one charging device for supplying a product to be treated, at least one gas outlet, and at least one discharge chamber, the at least one discharge chamber being separated from the main furnace vessel by a separating wall and being connected to the melting end by a siphon, the at least one discharge chamber having a gas chamber above the melt. At least one first heater projects into an interior of the main furnace vessel, and at least one second heater is provided in the at least one discharge chamber.

Abstract: A float glass production facility comprising a furnace including a melter, a refiner and a working end, the working end having two or more exits, each of which supplies a separate canal and float glass forming chamber, the working end being operable so that the glass flow through each of the two or more exits is independent of the flow of glass through the other exits.

Abstract: A melting furnace for thermal treatment of heavy metal-containing and/or dioxin-containing special wastes, including a clog preventing system including a principal furnace vessel, which exhibits a melting tank for holding a melt; at least one feeder for feeding the material to be treated; a discharge chamber, which is at a spatial distance from the feeder, the feeder being connected gas-tight via a siphon to the melting tank; the principal furnace vessel and the discharge chamber having third heating elements in the form of bath electrodes, by means of which an electric current can be run through the melt and the siphon for additional heating of the melt.

Abstract: A waste vitrification apparatus (10) having rotatable mixer impeller (16) functioning as a shaft electrode (60) and metallic vessel (14) functioning as a vessel electrode (62). A stream (12) of waste material and vitrifiable material are mixed and melted in the vessel (14) for vitrification. The waste vitrification method converts a feed stream (12) by mixing the feed stream into a glass melt (13) and melting glass batch of the feed stream (12) to form a foamy mass. The stream is dispersed by the impeller (16) to form a foam which is then densified in a settling zone (22), recovered through a spout (24) and solidified in storage containers. An adjuster adjusts the location of the mixing impeller (16) in the vessel (14) to change the depth of the settling zone (22). The impeller (16) is mounted on a drive shaft (18) having a recirculating coolant flow.

Abstract: A glass melter having a lid electrode for heating the glass melt radiantly. The electrode comprises a series of INCONEL 690 tubes running above the melt across the melter interior and through the melter walls and having nickel cores inside the tubes beginning where the tubes leave the melter interior and nickel connectors to connect the tubes electrically in series. An applied voltage causes the tubes to generate heat of electrical resistance for melting frit injected onto the melt. The cores limit heat generated as the current passes through the walls of the melter. Nickel bus connection to the electrical power supply minimizes heat transfer away from the melter that would occur if standard copper or water-cooled copper connections were used between the supply and the INCONEL 690 heating tubes.

Abstract: A vertical glass melting furnace of the type having an inlet for raw materials at the top thereof, an outlet for molten glass at the bottom thereof, and a tabular electric resistance heating element for melting which is immersed at some level in molten glass, has at least one opening, and covers almost entirely the cross-section of the furnace at that level, the vertical glass melting furnace comprising a stirrer which extends from above the furnace and passes through the batch layer and the tabular heating element so that the stirrer brings about forced circulation for homogenization of the molten glass which has passed through the tabular heating element and stays in the region below the tabular heating element.

Abstract: Furnace has a melting section into which batch is fed to a glass bath heated by electrodes, a homogenizing section, and a clarifying section therebetween in which fossil fuel burners heat the surface of the bath. The clarifying section is separated from the melting section by a first radiation shielding wall which extends to just above the bottom of the furnace and is interrupted by an opening above the glass for passage of combustion gases from the burners. A second shielding wall extends to above the surface of the bath and below the bottom margin of the opening in the first wall, so that combustion gases flow countercurrently through the incoming batch floating on the bath.

Abstract: Raw materials are fed into the charging end of a melting section which is heated by electrodes in the glass bath. The melted charge is then clarified under fossil fuel burners in a clarifying section, where the highest temperature of the furnace is maintained, and homogenized in a homogenizing section from which the clarified melt is drawn. Flue gas from the clarifying section sweeps the surface of the melting section countercurrently to the charge and is then used to heat combustion air. Burners in the clarifying section are operated under air starved conditions to reduce nitrogen oxides, while burners in the melting section are operated with excess air to achieve complete combustion.

Abstract: Disclosed are an energy saving method for melting glass in and a glass melting furnace for the practice of the method.A charge is melted in a melting section, clarified in a clarifying section adjoining the melting section, and then homogenized in an adjoining homogenizing section of increased bath depth and drawn therefrom. The charge is fed in at the beginning of the melting section and energy is supplied underneath the charging end through electrodes. The melting energy input is generated by combustion by fossil fuel burners in the clarifying section. The burner flue gases flow over the melting section countercurrently to the charge and are exhausted close to the charge end. The surface of the melting section is swept by a flow coming from the clarifying section countercurrently to the charge.

Abstract: Glass is made from a feed consisting of batch materials and cullet in a furnace that is both electrically and gas fired. A batch-only hopper discharges through a blanket conveyor to a batch melting chamber that is electrically fired and is connected via a submerged throat to a fritting chamber where the at least partly molten batch materials are mixed with cullet fed from cullet-only hoppers by blanket feeders. The fritting chamber is fired by a combination of electricity and roof-mounted flat flame burners. Material passes from the fritting chamber to a secondary reheating and refining chamber which is heated by regenerative gas burners. The separation of batch materials from cullet and separate melting thereof in a pre-melter means that the feed to the secondary refining and conditioning chamber is relatively free of fines and requirement to melt only cullet in the fritting chamber and secondary refining chamber enables those chambers to be operated at a lower temperature than the batch melting chamber.

Abstract: Disclosed is an improved efficiency glass melting furnace and a method of operation in which a mixture, or batch, is fed at a narrow side of a rectangular glass melting tank onto the molten glass mass (or bath) across the full width thereof. The furnace includes burners positioned adjacent to the opposite narrow side for supplying energy, and heat exchangers for energy exchange between the combustion exhaust gases and the combustion air supplied to the burners. The exhaust gas openings are disposed adjacent to the mixture feeding area. The furnace is provided with at least one thermal radiation shield between the burner and feed sections which extends to a small distance above the molten glass.

Abstract: A continuous process of making glass, in which a vitrifiable batch is fed to a furnace equipped with heating devices for melting the batch so as to produce molten glass. The furnace has a melting end into which the batch is fed and a delivery end remote from the melting end and from which delivery end molten glass is withdrawn. The furnace presents a melting zone adjacent the melting end, in which the batch is melted. The melting zone is composed in the vertical direction of an upper half constituting a batch zone and of a lower half, and the melting zone is further composed in the horizontal direction of an upstream half proximate to the melting end and of a downstream half remote from the melting end. In order to promote melting of the vitrifiable batch, to thereby improve the quality of the glass produced, a direct electric current is established, during the process, between at least one cathode located in the upstream half of the batch zone and at least one anode located outside the batch zone.