Multi-gob feeder, gob feeding method and related system, and feeder orifice
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- JP · JP
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2023-02-25
- Publication Date
- 2026-03-04
Smart Images
Figure 00000000_0000_ABST
Abstract
Description
[Technical field]
[0001] This patent application discloses innovations related to the manufacture of glass containers, and more specifically, to a glass gob feeder and the loading of glass gobs from the gob feeder into a blank mold. [Background technology]
[0002] Soda-lime-silica glass and other types of glass are prevalent in the manufacture of glass containers. The molten glass used to produce such articles can be prepared conventionally by reacting and melting a batch of glass-forming materials in a glass furnace. The batch of glass-forming materials is typically introduced into the furnace by being deposited into a pool of molten glass already in the furnace. In a conventional furnace, the batch is gradually melted into the pool by the continuous application of heat. In a submerged combustion (SC) melting furnace, the batch is melted by injecting a combustible gas mixture containing fuel and oxygen directly into a pool contained in the melter, typically through submerged burners mounted in the floor or submerged portion of the sidewall of the SC melter. The combustible gas mixture autoignites, and the resulting combustion products cause intense agitation and turbulence as they are discharged through the glass melt. The strong shear forces experienced between the combustion products and the glass melt cause rapid heat transfer and particle melting throughout the molten glass, compared to the slower reaction rates of conventional melting furnaces.
[0003] After the batch is melted in the furnace, the resulting molten glass is typically directed to a fining channel where gas bubbles are released from the molten glass, and then downstream to a forehearth where the fined molten glass is thermally conditioned by cooling to a temperature appropriate for forming the molten glass into a container. A gob feeder located at the downstream end of the forehearth can be used to meter and form a predetermined amount of molten glass known as a "gob." The gob feeder typically contains two or more orifices through which the gobs are fed into and through a "delivery" fixture to an "individual section" (IS) machine, which typically contains two or more blank molds that form the glass gobs into parisons that are used to form glass containers.
[0004] The gob feeder typically controls the temperature and amount of molten glass in the glass gob, as well as the rate at which the glass gob is indirectly fed to the IS machine via a delivery facility. However, the delivery facility requires the use of lubricants and includes a complex arrangement of scoops, troughs, and deflectors that vary in length and configuration depending on the proximity of each section of the IS machine to the gob feeder. The use of lubricants and variable delivery facilities contributes to variations in the temperature distribution of the glass gobs, which can contribute to undesirable non-uniform wall thicknesses of glass containers produced from the glass gobs. Such non-uniformity necessitates the use of larger container wall thicknesses than would otherwise be required. Summary of the Invention
[0005] The present disclosure embodies several aspects that can be implemented separately or in combination with each other.
[0006] A glass supply and forming system according to one aspect of the disclosure includes a multi-gob feeder including feeder orifices spaced laterally from one another and having longitudinal orifice centerlines that establish a gob drop axis. The system also includes a blank forming station disposed below the gob feeder and including blank molds spaced laterally from one another and having longitudinal blank mold centerlines that establish a gob loading axis that corresponds to the gob drop axis of the gob feeder.
[0007] According to another aspect of the disclosure, a multi-gob feeder is provided that includes feeder vessels including outlets spaced laterally from one another and having an outlet centerline, and feeder orifices spaced laterally from one another and in communication with the feeder vessels and having an orifice centerline coaxial with the outlets of the feeder vessels to establish a gob drop axis. The feeder orifices include an orifice pipe having a pipe mount and a pipe sleeve carried by the pipe mount. The feeder orifices also include an orifice tip having a tip mount mounted to the pipe mount and a tip sleeve carried by the tip mount.
[0008] According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a multi-gob feeder including a feeder vessel including an outlet having an outlet centerline, and a feeder orifice in communication with the feeder vessel and having an orifice centerline coaxial with the outlet of the feeder vessel to establish a gob drop axis. The feeder orifice includes an orifice pipe including an orifice pipe sleeve and an orifice pipe heater for heating the orifice pipe. The feeder orifice also includes an orifice tip including an orifice tip sleeve and an orifice tip heater for heating the orifice tip.
[0009] According to an additional aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided for loading glass gobs into a blank forming station of a glass forming machine, the method including generating glass gobs that fall along a falling gob axis from orifices spaced laterally from one another, and receiving the glass gobs within blank molds that are spaced laterally from one another and have blank mold centerlines that correspond to the falling gob axis.
[0010] According to another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a glass gob feeder orifice including an orifice pipe including an orifice pipe sleeve, a refractory collar around the orifice pipe sleeve, and an orifice pipe heater for heating the orifice pipe. The glass gob feeder orifice also includes an orifice tip below the orifice pipe including an orifice tip sleeve and an orifice tip heater for heating the orifice tip. [Brief description of the drawings]
[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a perspective schematic diagram of a glass supply and forming system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure illustrating a glass gob feeder and a glass former. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial perspective view of a lower portion of the glass gob feeder shown in FIG. 1 illustrating the split induction heating orifices. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a partial orthogonal bottom view of the feeder shown in FIG. 2 illustrating the orifice and gob cutting shear. [Figure 4A] FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of the system of FIG. 1 taken along line 4-4 in FIG. 3, illustrating the stirring needle positioned above the feeder vessel. [Figure 4B] FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of the system of FIG. 1 taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3, illustrating the agitation needle extending into the feeder vessel. [Diagram 5]5 is a partial cross-sectional view of the system of FIG. 1 taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 3, illustrating the feeder pan, mounting plate, and feeder orifices including the orifice tip and an additional replaceable orifice tip. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of the lower portion of the system of FIG. 1 illustrating nine different sizes of interchangeable orifice tips. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0012] In general, according to at least one aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus, system, and method are provided for loading glass gobs directly into at least one blank mold and moving the gobs inwardly or outwardly from the feeder centerline relative to the blank mold centerline, preferably without any intervening delivery equipment in the form of a scoop, trough, and / or deflector. However, such delivery equipment can be used, for example, to provide an equal path for the gobs to proceed to the blank mold. Thus, the apparatus, system, and method do not require delivery equipment that requires lubrication, is long and involves prolonged contact between the glass gobs and the delivery equipment, and therefore does not require large height differences between the glass feeder and the corresponding blank mold. As such, the temperature distribution of each glass gob delivered from the glass feeder to the blank mold is more uniform, which in turn results in a more uniform wall thickness of the glass container produced from the glass gobs, and therefore produces thinner-walled, lighter-weight containers. According to another aspect of the present disclosure, the feeder orifice is heated to facilitate rapid temperature changes of the orifice for good gob weight control, and is of split construction to heat the orifice tip to a higher temperature than the orifice pipe to prevent solidification of glass at the orifice tip and the attendant undesirable reduction in gob diameter at the orifice tip. The orifice is constructed with multiple interchangeable tip sleeves with conduits of different sized inner diameters to facilitate easy changeover from one gob size to another.
[0013] 1 generally illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a glass supply and forming system 10 including a multi-gob feeder 12 for producing a plurality of glass gobs G that fall along respective gob drop axes F corresponding to the gobs G, and a glass former 14 below the gob feeder 12 for receiving or loading the falling gobs G and ultimately producing glass containers (not shown) from the glass gobs G. The glass former 14 may be an individual section (IS) machine having a blank forming station or blank side 16 having a plurality of blank molds 18 for forming glass blanks or parisons from the glass gobs G, and a blow side (not shown) having a plurality of blow molds (not shown) for forming glass containers from the glass blanks or parisons after the blanks or parisons are transferred from the blank molds 18 to their corresponding blow molds. In other embodiments, the glass former 14 may include any suitable equipment for producing glass blanks or parisons.
[0014] Preferably, the system 10 does not include gob delivery facilities in the form of scoops, troughs, and / or deflectors between the gob feeder 12 and the blank die 18 to redirect the falling gobs G away from their gob drop axis F. However, the blank side 16 may include a gob funnel (not shown) that may be positioned between the gob feeder 12 and the blank die 18 at a height of about 2 mm or more above the baffle match of the blank die 18. In particular, the primary purpose of the gob funnel is to maintain the trajectory of the falling gobs along the falling gob axis. The gob funnel does not redirect glass gobs away from the gob drop axis associated with that blank die.
[0015] According to the present disclosure, the loading height between the glass line (or "metal line") of the glass melter and the top of the blank mold machine bed can be reduced compared to conventional configurations using delivery equipment in the form of scoops, troughs, and / or deflectors. Such conventional equipment typically requires a conventional loading height of about 6 meters to achieve a sufficient gob velocity to fully load the gob into the blank mold. In contrast, according to the present disclosure, since there is little or no surface contact on the falling gob between the gob feeder 12 and the blank mold 18, the gob G can achieve a sufficient velocity to fully load the gob G into the blank mold 18 according to a reduced loading height of, for example, about 3 meters. As used herein, the term "about" means within plus or minus 15%. In other embodiments, the subject matter of the present disclosure can be used to directly load the blank mold 18 at a conventional height. In particular, the shape of the gob G for direct loading is substantially different than a gob loaded into a mold via conventional delivery equipment because there is little or no stretching of the gob G through any delivery equipment.
[0016] 1 , the gob feeder 12 can include a base mounting plate 20 that can be mounted to the downstream end of a source of conditioned molten glass, such as a forehearth (not shown). The base mounting plate 20 can be used to mount a feeder channel 22 in communication with the forehearth (not shown) for receiving molten glass therefrom, a feeder head or spout 24 in communication with the feeder channel 22 via a secondary mounting plate 26 coupled to the base mounting plate 20, and can be used to mount various other devices, fixtures, beams, gussets, tension straps, and the like, of the gob feeder 12. The spout 24 is in downstream fluid communication with the forehearth and the feeder channel 22 and can include a housing 28 that is mounted to the secondary mounting plate 26 via a frame, beam, or the like that is welded, fastened, or otherwise coupled to the plate 26, and can be coupled to the spout 24 directly or via cross members, fasteners, and the like.
[0017] 2 and 3, the spout 24 can also include a feeder vessel 30 carried by the housing 28 for receiving the molten glass, and a feeder orifice 32 below the feeder vessel 30. The feeder orifice 32 can be a heated orifice, such as a split induction heated orifice, in molten glass communication with the feeder vessel.
[0018] 4A and 4B, there is shown a feeder vessel 30 carried by a housing 28 for receiving molten glass and defining a plurality of outlets 31 laterally spaced from one another at a lower or downstream end of the feeder vessel 30. The spout 24 may also include agitator needles 34 laterally spaced from one another for feeding molten glass toward and from a feeder orifice 32. The agitator needles 34 have an agitator centerline 35 that is preferably coaxial with the feeder outlet 31. In other embodiments, for example in the case of a double gob feeder, the needle centerline may not be coaxial with the orifice to allow for switching to quad gob production.
[0019] 4A, unlike typical gob feeders, here the vessel 30 of the gob feeder 12 may be tubeless and may include an agitation needle 34. That is, the gob feeder 12 does not need to have a common plunger tube as in the past. The feeder vessel 30 includes a main body 36 having an upper end 36a through which the agitation needle 34 extends, a lower end 36b, and a side inlet 38 between the upper end 36a and the lower end 36b that communicates downstream with the forehearth and the feeder channel 22. The feeder vessel 30 may also include a top cover 40 supported on the upper end 36a of the main body 36 of the feeder vessel 30 and having an opening through which the agitation needle 34 extends. The feeder vessel 30 may further include a bottom pan 42 that is separate from the main body 36 of the feeder vessel 30 and may be supported on the lower end 36b of the main body 36. The bottom pan 42 may include an upper end 42a having a common inlet 43 and a lower end 42b having outlets 31 laterally spaced apart from one another with an outlet centerline 44 coaxial with the feeder orifice 32.
[0020] Referring again to FIG. 1, the gob feeder 12 may also include an agitator actuator 46 for rotating and translating the agitator needle 34. The agitator needle 34 and the actuator 46 may be mounted to the secondary mounting plate 26 and / or the housing 28 by an upright beam or the like. Similarly, the gob feeder 12 may further include other auxiliary equipment. In one example, the feeder 12 may include a heating system (not shown separately) including one or more heaters for heating the feeder vessel 30 and the orifice 32. The heaters may be microwave heaters, resistive heaters, induction heaters, or any other equipment suitable for heating the vessel of the gob feeder. In another example, referring to FIG. 3, the feeder 12 may include a gob cutter 48 downstream and below the orifice 32 for cutting gobs from the flow of molten glass exiting the orifice 32. The gob cutter 48 may include a mechanical device such as a shear, an optical device such as a laser, a fluidic device such as a water jet, or any other device suitable for severing a gob from a molten glass stream. Figure 3 illustrates a gob cutter 48 in the form of a gob-cutting shear.
[0021] 1, the system 10 of the present disclosure includes a multi-gob feeder 12 including feeder orifices 32 spaced laterally from one another, having an orifice center distance, and having a longitudinal orifice centerline 50 (FIG. 4B) that establishes a gob drop axis F. The agitator centerline 35 may be coaxial with the orifice centerline 50 (FIG. 4B). The blank side 16 is disposed below the gob feeder 12 and includes blank dies 18 spaced laterally from one another, the blank dies 18 having a longitudinal blank die centerline 52 having a blank die center distance that may be equal to the orifice center distance and that establishes a gob loading axis corresponding to the gob drop axis F of the gob feeder 12, e.g., by being coaxial therewith, e.g., by being aligned therewith. The orifice centerline 50 (FIG. 4B) and the blank die centerline 52 may be aligned such that they are coaxially aligned with one another within plus or minus 30 mm, including all ranges, subranges, end points, and values therein. The system 10 of the present disclosure is capable of loading multiple glass gobs directly into the blank die 18 without the use of chutes, deflectors, and other delivery equipment interposed between the blank side 16 and the feeder 12.
[0022] 5, the feeder orifice 32 may include an orifice plate 54 attached to one or more feeder lower plates 56 below the bottom pan 42 of the feeder vessel 30, which may be coupled to the housing 28 (FIG. 1) of the feeder 12 or any other suitable structure of the feeder 12. The orifice plate 54 may be attached to the lower plate 56 by a clamp 58, for example a releasable swing clamp, or in any other suitable manner. The orifice plate 54 may carry a refractory collar 55 at the feeder vessel outlet 31. The feeder vessel outlet 31 may be defined by the bottom pan 42 of the vessel 30 and / or by a transition conduit 60, which may be an integral part of the bottom pan 42 or a separate component from the bottom pan 42, or the like. The feeder orifice 32 may additionally include an orifice pipe 62 depending from the orifice plate 54 and an orifice tip 64 depending from the orifice pipe 62 .
[0023] The orifice pipe 62 may include a pipe fitting that may include a mounting conduit 66 having an upper end, and a lower end, that may be welded, fastened, or otherwise coupled to the orifice plate 54. The pipe fitting may also include an upper mounting flange 68 welded, fastened, or otherwise coupled to the lower end of the mounting conduit 66. In other embodiments, any other pipe fitting suitable for mounting the orifice pipe 62 may be used. The orifice pipe 62 may also include a refractory collar 70 carried within the mounting conduit 66 and an upper refractory flange 72 at the lower end of the refractory collar 70. The orifice pipe 62 may also include a pipe sleeve 74 carried within the collar 70 and including a pipe conduit 76 and a pipe flange 78 at the lower end of the pipe conduit 76. The orifice pipe 62 may also include one or more orifice pipe heaters 80, such as induction heaters carried about the mounting conduit 66 and / or the refractory collar 70, to indirectly heat the orifice pipe sleeve 74 via the mounting conduit 66 and / or the refractory collar 74. The induction heater may include an element helically wound around the pipe conduit 66.
[0024] 5, the orifice tip 64 may include a tip mount 82 that may include a lower mounting flange 84 located below the orifice pipe 62 and coupled to the upper mounting flange 68 of the orifice pipe 62. In other embodiments, any other tip mount suitable for mounting the orifice tip 64 may be used. The orifice tip 64 may also include a lower refractory flange 86 between the lower mounting flange 84 and the upper refractory flange 72, and a tip sleeve 88. The tip sleeve 88 may have a tip flange 90 at an upper end of the tip sleeve 88 sandwiched between the upper refractory flange 72 and the lower refractory flange 86, and a tip conduit 92 extending downwardly from the tip flange 90 and having an inner diameter. The orifice tip 64 may also include one or more orifice tip heaters 94, such as induction heaters, carried about the orifice tip sleeve 88 for directly heating the sleeve 88. The induction heater may include an element spirally wound around the tip conduit 92 .
[0025] The orifice pipe 62 and tip 64 may include different heaters configured to heat the orifice pipe 62 and tip 64 to different temperatures. For example, the orifice tip 64 may be heated to a temperature higher than that of the orifice pipe 62 in any suitable manner. Thus, the feeder orifice 32 may be a split induction heated orifice that facilitates rapid temperature changes of the orifice 32 for good gob weight control and allows the orifice tip 62 to be heated to a higher temperature than the orifice pipe 64 to prevent solidification of glass at the orifice tip 64 and the associated undesirable reduction in gob diameter at the orifice tip 64. As shown in FIG. 5, the tip sleeve 88 includes a plurality of interchangeable tip sleeves 88, 88', 88'' having conduits of different sized inner diameters.
[0026] 6, three sets of orifices 32, 132, 232 are shown, each having a pipe sleeve 74 (viewed with respect to the first set of orifices 32) and nine different sized interchangeable tip sleeves 88, 88', 88'', 188, 188', 188'', 288, 288', 288''. The pipe sleeves 74 may be the same size across all three sets of orifices 32, 132, 232, or the sets may include different pipe sleeves of different sizes, specifically different sized inner diameters. Thus, with nine different orifice tip sleeves and three different pipe sleeves, a total of 27 different orifice tips are shown in FIG. 6. The orifice pipe and / or tip, particularly the sleeve, may be constructed from platinum, platinum alloys (e.g., rhodium and platinum industrial materials such as FKS), powder metallurgy, dispersion strengthened, ferritic iron-chromium-aluminum alloys such as APM, or any other material suitable for use as an orifice component.Those skilled in the art will recognize that the presently disclosed feeders and feeder orifices may be adapted for use with a single feeder outlet and single feeder orifice, or double or quad feeders.
[0027] Also disclosed is a method of loading one or more glass gobs into a glass forming machine. The method includes generating one or more glass gobs that drop along respective gob drop axes from one or more corresponding orifices, the orifices being laterally spaced from one another when two or more orifices are present. The orifices have centerlines with an orifice center distance. The one or more glass gobs are received in one or more corresponding blank molds, each of the blank molds having a blank mold centerline that establishes a gob loading axis corresponding to its corresponding gob drop axis. The blank molds have centerlines with a blank mold center distance that may be equal to the orifice center distance. The step of generating the glass gobs may include stirring the molten glass in a tubeless gob feeder using stirring needles laterally spaced from one another, and may further include heating the column of molten glass with an orifice pipe heater configured to heat an upper portion of the column of molten glass and an orifice tip heater configured to heat a lower portion of the column of molten glass to a temperature higher than the temperature of the upper portion of the column of molten glass. For example, an orifice pipe induction heater may be used to heat an upper portion of the column of molten glass, and an orifice tip induction heater may be used to heat a lower portion of the column of molten glass. The heating step may include indirectly inductively heating the orifice pipe through a refractory collar and directly inductively heating the orifice tip. In other embodiments, the step of generating the glass gob may include heating the orifice tip to a higher temperature than the orifice pipe. In either case of heating the tip or the lower portion of the column of molten glass, the purpose is to prevent solidification of glass at the tip and the attendant undesirable reduction in gob diameter at the tip.
[0028] The glass manufacturing system can include a gob feeder that generates falling gobs that fall along a glass gob loading axis, a glass former having a machine frame and establishing a glass gob loading axis, a crossable blank side including a blank mold configured to form the glass gob into a parison and having a corresponding blank mold vertical axis, and a mold carriage movably carried on the machine frame and coupled to the crossable blank side for linearly translating the crossable blank side toward the glass gob loading axis to align the blank mold vertical axis with the glass gob loading axis and for linearly translating the crossable blank side away from the glass gob loading axis. The crossable blank mold section is movable under the gob feeder such that the blank mold receives the falling gobs directly from the gob feeder. One skilled in the art will recognize that the crossable blank side can include a plurality of blank molds and blank mold axes, and the mold carriage movably carries the crossable blank side for translation toward and away from the corresponding glass gob loading axis. In a preferred embodiment, such a glass former may be provided as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17 / 981,139, filed Nov. 4, 2022, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
[0029] As used herein, the terms "for example," "eg," "for example," "such as," "comprising," "having," "including," and the like, when used in conjunction with a list of one or more elements, should be construed as open-ended, meaning that the list does not exclude additional elements. Also, as used herein, the term "may" is merely a convenience to indicate optionality of, for example, the disclosed embodiments, elements, features, and the like, and should not be construed as obscuring any disclosure herein. Additionally, directional terms such as front, rear, top, bottom, upward, downward, radial, circumferential, axial, lateral, longitudinal, vertical, horizontal, transverse, and / or the like, are used by way of example and not necessarily as limiting.
[0030] Finally, the subject matter of the present application is disclosed herein in conjunction with several explicit exemplary embodiments and modifications to those embodiments, using various terms. All terms used herein are intended to be merely descriptive, not necessarily limiting, and should be interpreted and understood according to their ordinary and customary meaning in the art, unless used in a context that requires a different interpretation. Also, for convenience, each explicit exemplary embodiment and modification is incorporated by reference into one or more of the other explicit exemplary embodiments and modifications. Thus, it is not intended, nor possible, to describe herein all such subject matter, many other embodiments, modifications, and their equivalents that currently exist or have not yet been discovered, and thus would be readily suggested to one of ordinary skill in the art in view of the present disclosure. Rather, the present disclosure is intended to encompass all such embodiments and modifications of the subject matter, and their equivalents, as fall within the broad scope of the appended claims.
Claims
1. A glass supply and forming system (10), comprising: a multi-gob feeder (12) including feeder orifices (32, 132, 232) laterally spaced from one another and having a longitudinal orifice centerline (50) that establishes a gob drop axis (F); a blank forming station (16) disposed below the gob feeder and including blank molds (18) laterally spaced apart from one another and having a longitudinal blank mold centerline (52) establishing a gob loading axis corresponding to the gob drop axis of the gob feeder.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein no gob delivery equipment is interposed between the gob feeder and the blank forming station.
3. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the gob feeder includes a tubeless housing (28) and an agitator needle (34) having an agitator centerline (35) coaxial with the longitudinal orifice centerline.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the gob feeder does not have a plunger tube mounted therein.
5. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the feeder orifice includes an orifice pipe (62), an orifice pipe induction heater (80) around the orifice pipe, an orifice tip (64) in downstream communication with the orifice pipe and separate from the orifice pipe, and an orifice tip induction heater (94) around the orifice tip and separate from the orifice pipe induction heater.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the orifice tip induction heater is configured to heat the orifice tip to a higher temperature than the orifice pipe.
7. 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the gob feeder also includes a housing (28) and a feeder vessel (30), the feeder vessel (30) including a main body (36) carried by the housing and including an upper end (36a) from which an agitation needle (34) extends, a lower end (36b), and a side inlet (38) between the upper and lower ends; and a bottom pan (42) separate from the main body of the feeder vessel and carried at the lower end of the feeder vessel, the bottom pan including an upper end having a common inlet (43) and a lower end having outlets (31) laterally spaced apart from each other, the outlet centerline (44) being coaxial with the longitudinal orifice centerline of the feeder orifice.
8. the gob feeder includes a feeder vessel (30) including an outlet (31), the feeder orifice being disposed below the outlet of the feeder vessel; An orifice pipe (62), A pipe attachment portion, a mounting conduit (66) having an upper end and a lower end; a pipe fitting including an upper mounting flange (68) coupled to the lower end of the mounting conduit; a refractory collar (70) carried within said mounting conduit; an upper refractory flange (72) at the lower end of said refractory collar; an orifice pipe (62) including a pipe sleeve (74) carried within the refractory collar and having a pipe conduit (76) and a pipe flange (78) at a lower end of the pipe sleeve; an orifice tip (64) below the orifice pipe, A tip attachment (82), a lower mounting flange (84) coupled to the upper mounting flange of the orifice pipe; a lower refractory flange (86) between said lower mounting flange and said upper refractory flange; 2. The system of claim 1, comprising: an orifice tip (64) including a tip fitting (82) including a tip sleeve (88) having a tip flange (90) at an upper end of the tip sleeve sandwiched between the upper refractory flange and the lower refractory flange; and a tip conduit (92) extending downwardly from the tip flange and having an inner diameter.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the tip sleeve comprises a plurality of interchangeable tip sleeves (88 ′, 88 ″, 188, 188 ′, 188 ″, 288, 288 ′, 288 ′) having conduits of different sized inner diameters.
10. 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the orifice pipe and the tip also include different heaters (80, 94) for heating the orifice pipe and the tip to different temperatures.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the orifice tip is heated to a temperature greater than the temperature of the orifice pipe.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the blank mold has a longitudinal blank mold centerline (52) having a blank mold center distance equal to the longitudinal orifice centerline center distance.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the longitudinal blank mold centerline establishes a gob loading axis that is coaxial with the gob drop axis of the gob feeder.
14. A multi-gob feeder (12), a feeder vessel (30) including outlets (31) laterally spaced from one another and having an outlet centerline (44); feeder orifices (32, 132, 232) laterally spaced from one another, in communication with said feeder vessel, having orifice centerlines (50) coaxial with said outlets of said feeder vessels, establishing a gob drop axis (F); An orifice pipe (62), A pipe attachment portion; an orifice pipe (62) having a pipe sleeve (74) carried by the pipe fitting; An orifice tip (64), a tip attachment portion (82) attached to the pipe attachment portion; a tip sleeve (88) carried by the tip mount; and a feeder orifice (32, 132, 232) including an orifice tip (64).
15. 15. The feeder of claim 14, further comprising a tubeless housing (28) having no plunger tube therein, and agitator needles (34) laterally spaced apart from one another and having agitator centerlines (35) coaxial with the orifice centerline.
16. 15. The feeder of claim 14, wherein the feeder orifice also includes an orifice pipe heater (80) around the mounting conduit of the pipe mount and the refractory collar of the orifice pipe, and an orifice tip heater (94) separate from the orifice pipe heater around the tip sleeve.
17. 15. The feeder of claim 14, wherein the tip sleeve comprises a plurality of interchangeable tip sleeves (88', 88'', 188, 188', 188'', 288, 288', 288'') having conduits of different sized inner diameters.
18. A multi-gob feeder (12), a feeder vessel (30) including an outlet (31) having an outlet centerline (44); a feeder orifice (32) in communication with the feeder vessel and having an orifice centerline (50) coaxial with the outlet of the feeder vessel, establishing a gob drop axis (F); an orifice pipe (62) including an orifice pipe sleeve (74) and an orifice pipe heater (80) for heating the orifice pipe; a feeder orifice (32) including an orifice tip (64), the orifice tip (64) including an orifice tip sleeve (88) and an orifice tip heater (94) for heating the orifice tip.
19. 20. The feeder of claim 18, wherein the orifice tip heater is configured to heat the orifice tip to a higher temperature than the orifice pipe.
20. 20. The feeder of claim 18, wherein the orifice pipe and the tip also include different heaters for heating the orifice pipe and the tip to different temperatures.
21. 21. The feeder of claim 20, wherein the orifice tip heater and the orifice pipe heater are induction heaters.
22. 19. The feeder of claim 18, wherein said orifice pipe also includes a refractory collar (70) around said orifice pipe sleeve, said orifice pipe heater being an induction heater carried around said refractory collar for indirectly heating said orifice pipe sleeve, and said orifice tip heater being an induction heater carried around said orifice tip sleeve for directly heating said orifice tip sleeve.
23. 1. A method for loading a glass gob (G) into a blank forming station (16) of a glass forming machine (14), comprising: generating glass gobs that fall along a falling gob axis (F) from orifices (32) laterally spaced apart from one another; receiving the glass gobs within blank molds (18) laterally spaced apart from one another and having a blank mold centerline (52) corresponding to the falling gob axis.
24. 24. The method of claim 23, wherein the creating step includes stirring the molten glass in a tubeless gob feeder (12) using stirring needles (34) laterally spaced apart from one another.
25. 24. The method of claim 23, wherein the generating step includes heating the column of molten glass with an orifice pipe heater (80) configured to heat an upper portion of the column of molten glass and an orifice tip heater (94) configured to heat a lower portion of the column of molten glass to a temperature greater than the temperature of the upper portion of the column of molten glass.
26. 26. The method of claim 25, wherein the heating step includes indirectly inductively heating the orifice pipe sleeve (74) through a refractory collar (70) and directly inductively heating the orifice tip sleeve (88).
27. A glass gob feeder orifice (32, 132, 232), An orifice pipe (62), an orifice pipe sleeve (74); a refractory collar (70) around said orifice pipe sleeve; an orifice pipe (62) including an orifice pipe heater (88) for heating the orifice pipe sleeve; an orifice tip (64) below the orifice pipe, an orifice tip sleeve (88); an orifice tip heater for heating said orifice tip; and an orifice tip heater for heating said orifice tip.
28. The orifice pipe also A pipe attachment portion, a mounting conduit (66) having upper and lower ends; an upper mounting flange (68) coupled to the lower end of the mounting conduit; an upper refractory flange (72) at the lower end of said refractory collar; the refractory collar is carried within the mounting conduit; the orifice pipe sleeve is carried within the refractory collar; and a pipe conduit (76); a pipe flange (78) at the lower end of the pipe conduit; the orifice tip is below the orifice pipe; and A tip attachment (82), a lower mounting flange (84) coupled to the upper mounting flange of the orifice pipe; a lower refractory flange (86) between said lower mounting flange and said upper refractory flange; the orifice tip sleeve: a tip flange (90) at the upper end of the orifice tip sleeve sandwiched between the upper refractory flange and the lower refractory flange; 28. The orifice of claim 27, further comprising: a tip conduit (92) extending downwardly from said tip flange and having an inner diameter.
29. 29. The orifice of claim 28, wherein the orifice tip sleeve is one of a plurality of interchangeable tip sleeves (88', 88'', 188, 188', 188'', 288, 288', 288'') having tip conduits of different sized inner diameters.
30. 30. The orifice of claim 28, wherein the orifice pipe and the tip include different heaters for heating the orifice pipe and the tip to different temperatures.
31. 30. The orifice of claim 28, wherein the orifice pipe heater comprises an induction heater carried about the orifice pipe and the orifice tip heater comprises a different induction heater carried about the orifice tip.