Melting end for glass melting furnaces with soldier blocks and operating process therefor

Operating process for a combination including a tank having an end chamber for containing a glass melt having an established level line, said tank having a wall and a tank bottom, said tank having soldier blocks arranged side by side which are of a refractory, mineral material and form said wall of the end chamber, said wall having an inner side facing inwardly of the end chamber and an outer side facing outwardly of the end chamber, and said soldier blocks having a rectangular cross section at least in a bottom region thereof at the tank bottom, and said soldier blocks reaching upwardly above said established level line of the glass melt, and said combination including a plurality of cooling air nozzles which are directed toward the outer side of a plurality of the soldier blocks, said soldier blocks individually having on their outer side recesses diminishing a thickness cross section in thickness direction, as corrosion of soldier blocks progresses refractory supplementary elements being insertable into said recesses, wherein each of said recesses is disposed at an upper end of each of said soldier blocks and each of said soldier blocks is step-shaped with at least two steps with a horizontal cross section of the soldier blocks being reduced abruptly in an upwardly direction, and said combination including said supplementary elements for steps of said soldier blocks, said supplementary elements being complementary to portions of said recesses and being disposed successively in said portions of said recesses, and said supplementary elements being of a material corrosion-resistant to glass, in which top edges of the supplementary elements are at substantially the same level as top edges of the soldier blocks and in which a cooling air flushing is performed by said nozzles in a region of said level line, and in which the combination operates in a first of several operating phases without first supplementary elements in said recesses, the operating process comprising:

• cooling air flushing backs of said recesses by said cooling air nozzles, and in at least one subsequent operating phase inserting first supplementary elements into said recesses, and flushing an outer side of the inserted first supplementary elements with cooling air by said cooling air nozzles.

In a glass melting furnace, the combination comprising:

• a tank having an end chamber for containing a glass melt having an established level line, said tank having a wall and a tank bottom, said tank having soldier blocks arranged side by side which are of a refractory, mineral material and form said wall of the end chamber, said soldier blocks having an inner side facing inwardly of the end chamber and an outer side facing outwardly of the end chamber, and said soldier blocks having a rectangular cross section at least in a bottom region thereof at the tank bottom, and said soldier blocks reaching upwardly above said established level line of the glass melt, and said combination including a plurality of cooling air nozzles which are directed in a direction of the outer side of a plurality of the soldier blocks, said soldier blocks each having on their outer side at least two recesses diminishing a thickness cross section in thickness direction, as corrosion of soldier blocks progresses refractory supplementary elements being insertable into said recesses, wherein each of said recesses is disposed at an upper end of each of said soldier blocks and each of said soldier blocks is step-shaped with at least two steps with a horizontal cross section of the soldier blocks being reduced abruptly in an upwardly direction, and said combination including said supplementary elements for steps of said soldier blocks, said supplementary elements being complementary to portions of said recesses and being disposed successively in said portions of said recesses, and said supplementary elements being of a material corrosion-resistant to glass.