Glass Melting Refining Agent Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The use of submerged combustion burners during the glass batch melting stage impairs the effectiveness of refining agents in removing gas bubbles from molten glass, as they can strip or destroy these agents, reducing their availability for the refining process and altering the glass's color properties.
Innovation Solution
Introducing a refining agent into the unrefined molten glass in a second stage after the submerged combustion melting stage, allowing it to react with gaseous constituents and increase gas bubble size and buoyancy for removal, while optionally using a colorant to adjust the glass's color post-refining.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If submerged combustion burners are used to heat molten glass, then heating efficiency is improved, but gas bubbles are generated and refining agents are stripped or destroyed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the glass melting process into two distinct stages: a first stage using submerged combustion burners for efficient heating, and a second stage using overhead burners for gentle finishing and bubble removal. This segmentation allows each stage to optimize its function without the harmful interactions that occur when both processes are combined.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds refining agents to the glass batch before melting begins. This preliminary action ensures that the refining agents are present and functional during the melting process, allowing them to effectively remove gas bubbles generated by the submerged combustion burners without being stripped or destroyed.
2Manufacturing precision
If refining agents are added to glass batch, then gas bubble removal is improved, but submerged combustion burners strip or destroy these agents
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the heating process into two stages with different burner types. The first stage uses submerged combustion burners for efficient melting, while the second stage uses overhead burners that do not strip or destroy refining agents, allowing the refining agents to function effectively throughout the process.
Solution Approach 2:
Refining agents are added to the glass batch before melting begins, ensuring they are present and functional during the entire process. This preliminary addition allows the agents to work effectively during both stages of melting without being lost.
3Speed
If glass is heated to high temperature for refining, then gas bubbles rise and escape, but refining agents may be destroyed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the heating process into two temperature stages: a first stage at higher temperature for efficient melting, and a second stage at controlled temperature for gentle refining. This segmentation allows gas bubbles to rise effectively without exposing the refining agents to conditions that would destroy them.
Solution Approach 2:
Refining agents are added to the glass batch before melting begins, ensuring they are present and functional during the entire process. This preliminary addition allows the agents to work effectively during the refining stage without being destroyed, as the two-stage heating process controls the temperature exposure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This process effectively reduces gas bubbles in the molten glass, ensuring their removal and allowing for the production of glass with desired color properties by maintaining the refining agents' functionality and adjusting the glass's color as needed.
Implementation Method 1
Refining agents function by releasing additional gases into the molten glass when the molten glass is heated to a temperature at or above a predetermined refining-onset temperature
Implementation Method 2
Gas bubbles and dissolved gases in the molten glass diffuse into the new gas bubbles generated by the refining agents, which increases the size of the gas bubbles in the molten glass. As the gas bubbles increase in size so does the buoyancy of the gas bubbles, which increases the rate at which the gas bubbles rise to the surface of the molten glass and are released.
Implementation Method 3
Overhead burners generate a flame between the glass melt and a crown of the melting tank, and heat is transferred to the glass-forming materials and the glass melt by radiation from the flame and the crown.
Implementation Method 4
A mixture of fuel and an oxidant is fired into the glass melt by the submerged burners, and heat is directly transferred to the glass melt by the products of combustion.
Data Source
AI summary
In a process for manufacturing glass, a mixture of solid glass-forming materials (18) may be melted by application of heat from one or more submerged combustion burners (34) to produce a volume of unrefined molten glass comprising, by volume, 20% to 40% gas bubbles. A refining agent may be introduced into the unrefined molten glass to promote gas bubble removal from the molten glass. The unrefined molten glass including the refining agent may be heated at a temperature in the range of 1200° C. to 1500° C. to produce a volume of refined molten glass. The refined molten glass may comprise, by volume, fewer gas bubbles than the unrefined molten glass. A colorant material may be introduced into the refined molten glass to produce a volume of molten glass having a final desired color.