摘要:
A melting apparatus is disclosed, the melting apparatus including a melting vessel with a back wall, a front wall, a first side wall, a second side wall and a longitudinal centreline extending therebetween and a width between the first and second side walls orthogonal to the centreline. The melting vessel further includes a first feed screw including a first axis of rotation and a second feed screw including a second axis of rotation, the first axis of rotation positioned between the longitudinal centreline and the first side wall and the second axis of rotation, the first axis of rotation positioned between the longitudinal centreline and the first side wall and the second axis of rotation positioned between the longitudinal centreline and the second side wall. The positions of either one or both the first and second axes of rotation are located from a respective side wall a distance that is equal to or less than about 15% of the width of the melting vessel.
摘要:
Methods and apparatus for producing display quality glass sheets are provided in which the batch materials for making the sheets are melted in a furnace whose glass-engaging surfaces comprise zirconia (ZrO2). By using molybdenum electrodes, instead of the conventional tin electrodes, to electrically heat the molten glass, the wear rate per unit area of the furnace's glass-engaging, zirconia-containing surfaces are reduced by more than 50%, thus reducing zirconia levels (solid+dissolved) in the finished glass by at least a similar amount. As a consequence of this reduction, rejection rates of finished glass sheets are lowered, which is of particular value in the production of glass sheets of large dimensions, as desired by display manufacturers and other users of such sheets.