Multiple gob feeder, gob feeding method and related system, and feeder orifice

A glass feeding and forming system, comprising:

• a multiple gob feeder including feeder orifices laterally spaced apart from one another and having longitudinal orifice centerlines establishing gob falling axes;
• and
• a blank molding station disposed below the gob feeder and including blank molds laterally spaced apart from one another and having longitudinal blank mold centerlines establishing gob loading axes corresponding to the gob falling axes of the gob feeder
• wherein the multiple gob feeder includes a feeder vessel including outlets, and wherein the feeder orifices are disposed below the outlets of the feeder vessel and include
• orifice pipes including
• pipe mounts including
• mounting conduits having upper ends and lower ends,
• upper mounting flanges coupled to the lower ends of the mounting conduits,
• refractory collars carried in the mounting conduits,
• upper refractory flanges at lower ends of the refractory collars, and
• pipe sleeves carried in the refractory collars and having pipe conduits and pipe flanges at lower ends of the pipe sleeves, and
• orifice tips below the orifice pipes and including
• tip mounts including
• lower mounting flanges coupled to the upper mounting flanges of the orifice pipes,
• lower refractory flanges between the lower mounting flanges and the upper refractory flanges, and
• tip sleeves having tip flanges at upper ends of the tip sleeves sandwiched between the upper and lower refractory flanges and tip conduits extending downwardly from the tip flanges and having inner diameters.

A method of loading glass gobs into a blank molding station of a glass forming machine, comprising:

• producing glass gobs falling from orifices laterally spaced apart from one another and along falling gob axes and including
• orifice pipes including orifice pipe sleeves and orifice pipe heaters to heat the orifice pipes, and
• orifice tips including orifice tip sleeves and orifice tip heaters to heat the orifice tips,
• wherein the orifice tip heaters and the orifice pipe heaters are controlled independently of one another;
• and
• receiving the glass gobs into blank molds laterally spaced apart from one another and having blank mold centerlines corresponding to the falling gob axes.

A glass feeding and forming system, comprising:

• a multiple gob feeder including feeder orifices laterally spaced apart from one another and having longitudinal orifice centerlines establishing gob falling axes;
• and
• a blank molding station disposed below the gob feeder and including blank molds laterally spaced apart from one another and having longitudinal blank mold centerlines establishing gob loading axes corresponding to the gob falling axes of the gob feeder
• wherein the multiple gob feeder includes a feeder vessel including outlets, and wherein the feeder orifices are disposed below the outlets of the feeder vessel and each include
• an orifice pipe including
• an orifice pipe sleeve,
• a refractory collar around the orifice pipe sleeve, and
• an orifice pipe heater to heat the orifice pipe, and
• an orifice tip below the orifice pipe and including
• an orifice tip sleeve, and
• an orifice tip heater to heat the orifice tip.