Forehearth
AssigneeParkinson-Spencer Refractories Limited
InventorJohn McMinn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A forehearth for a glass furnace comprises a trough and roof over the trough, the roof having two longitudinal ridges extending downwardly towards the surface of the glass to define three longitudinal chambers. The central chamber forms a conduit for the flow of cooling air over the central part of the stream of glass and the side chambers serve as conduits for the flow of combustion gas. Separate outlets are provided for the cooling and combustion gases and controllable dampers are provided at least on the combustion gas outlets. Balancing of the internal pressures between the three chambers can ensure that there is little or no significant mixing of the cooling air and combustion gases and accurate control of the cooling and/or heating can be obtained by control of the dampers.
Claims14
A forehearth, comprising:
- (a) a trough comprising a bottom portion and two side portions;
- (b) a roof disposed over said trough to define a chamber for containing molten glass;
- (c) means for injecting cooling gas into a cooling zone, said cooling zone defined by at least two longitudinally disposed ridges extending downwardly toward said trough bottom portion from said roof;
- (d) means for removing cooling gas from said cooling zone;
- (e) means for heating side zones by introducing combustion gases into said side zones, said side zones defined by said longitudinally disposed ridges;
- and
- (f) means for removing combustion gases from said side zones, said means for removing combustion gases being separate from said means for removing cooling gas.
A forehearth, comprising:
- (a) a trough comprising a bottom portion and two side portions;
- (b) a roof disposed over said trough to define a chamber for containing molten glass;
- (c) a plurality of cooling gas inlets disposed in said roof and above a cooling zone, said cooling zone defined by at least two longitudinally disposed ridges extending downwardly from said roof, said cooling gas inlets being adapted to inject cooling gas into said cooling zone;
- (d) a plurality of cooling gas exhaust outlets disposed in said roof and above said cooling zone;
- (e) a plurality of gas burners disposed along the sides of said trough for injection combustion gas into side zones, said side zones defined by said longitudinally disposed ridges;
- and
- (f) a plurality of combustion gas outlets within said roof and disposed above said side zones, wherein said combustion gas outlets are controllable by adjustable dampers.
A method for homogenizing molten glass in a forehearth comprising a central cooling zone and two side zones, comprising the steps of:
- (a) moving molten glass in a longitudinal direction through said forehearth;
- (b) introducing cooling gas through at least one cooling gas inlet disposed above said cooling zone wherein said cooling gas contacts said molten glass;
- (c) extracting at least a portion of said cooling gas from said cooling zone through at least one cooling gas outlet disposed above said cooling zone;
- (d) introducing combustion gases into said side zones through at least one gas burner adjacent to said side zones;
- and
- (e) removing said combustion gases through at least one combustion gas outlet disposed above said side zones, said combustion gas outlet being separate from said cooling gas outlet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.