Process and apparatus for glass manufacture

An apparatus for manufacturing glass including:

• one or more doghouses to receive a mixture of solid glass-forming materials and including one or more submerged combustion burners, the one or more doghouses each defining a flow direction;
• and
• an elongated tank downstream of a first of the one or more doghouses that defines a flow direction of the molten glass oriented transverse to the flow direction of the first doghouse, the elongated tank including:
• a melting chamber having an inlet in communication with the first doghouse;
• a refining chamber downstream of, and in communication with, the melting chamber, wherein the melting chamber and the refining chamber are separated by a throat;
• and
• a thermal conditioning chamber downstream of, and in communication with, the refining chamber, wherein the refining chamber and the thermal conditioning chamber are separated by a waist;
• and
• wherein the apparatus raises the temperature of the molten glass in the one or more doghouses to a melting temperature ranging from 1450° C. to 1550° C. that is higher than a temperature of the molten glass at any location in the elongated tank and wherein the molten glass flowing through the elongated tank is maintained at a temperature less than or equal to 1400° C. and is gradually and continuously cooled to a temperature in the range of 1000° C. to 1100° C. at a downstream end of the elongated tank, the temperature of the molten glass in the melting chamber cooled to below that of the temperature in the doghouse, the temperature of the molten glass in the refining chamber cooled to below that of the temperature in the melting chamber and the temperature of the molten glass in the thermal conditioning chamber cooled to below that of the temperature in the refining chamber.