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AssigneeNitto Boseki Co., Ltd.
InventorsTakeshi Watanabe, Kazuo Nishimaki, Kazuo Shimanuki, Katuo Mita, Satoru Konno
Estimating the term…
An air flow supplied by a duct 10 adjacent a melt furnace 3 is normally directed downwardly through a plurality of nozzles 12 in the bottom of the duct towards a floor grate 13 or the like communicating with an exhaust duct 14, to thereby form a heat shielding air curtain 11 to protect the operator/controller. During the initial start-up period of the filament draw forming operation, however, a pivotal damper plate 15 adjacent the supply duct may be raised to deflect the air flow across the bottom of the orifice plate 4 of the melt furnace 3, to thereby cool the molten glass cones at the orifice exits and increase their viscosity, which serves to stabilize the filament forming conditions and prevent adjacent cones/filaments from converging together.
In a method for draw forming glass filaments wherein molten glass flows through holes in an orifice plate on the bottom of an elevated melt furnace to form a plurality of individual filaments which are collected and drawn downwardly by winding means, and wherein a heat shielding air curtain is established between an air flow supply duct adjacent the furnace and a floor exhaust duct to protect the operator, the improvements comprising the steps of:
A method as defined in any of the preceding claims, wherein the air flow is deflected for from 5 to 10 seconds.
In an apparatus for draw forming glass filaments wherein molten glass flows through holes in an orifice plate on the bottom of an elevated melt furnace to form a plurality of individual filaments which are collected and drawn downwardly by winding means, and wherein a heat shielding air curtain is established between an air flow supply duct adjacent the furnace and a floor exhaust duct to protect the operator, the improvement comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.