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US 7,900,475 B2Granted
System for and method of batch analysis and optimization for glass manufacturing
AssigneeCulchrome, LLC
InventorsRichard L. Lehman, Warren Blasland, Jr.
Life of this patent
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AssigneeCulchrome, LLC
InventorsRichard L. Lehman, Warren Blasland, Jr.
Estimating the term…
Certain preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a system for and method of analyzing and cleaning a cullet stream prior to bottle manufacturing. In accordance with certain aspects of the present invention, the system includes a raw materials feeder, a mixing stage, a melting stage, a bottle-forming stage, a cooling/annealing stage, an inspection stage, and a batch controller. The raw materials feeder further includes a cullet bin within which is cullet supply, a feeder, an analysis device, and removal assembly. Certain preferred embodiments of the method include the steps of feeding cullet onto the conveyor, performing real-time composition analysis of the cullet, removing contaminants from the cullet, determining whether the cullet batch is consistent with a predetermined tolerance threshold, adjusting the glass batch formulation, sending the batch ingredients to the mixing stage, and then completing the overall glass manufacturing process.
A glass batch controller that is responsive to the output of an analyzer capable of determining at least one of composition and color of mixed-color glass cullet as the glass cullet passes said analyzer on a conveyor to a mixer of a glass furnace, said glass batch controller comprising:
A program storage device readable by a processor and storing thereon a program of instructions executable by the processor during the process of creating recycled glass products of a particular color from mixed color glass cullet having glass of at least two different colors, the program of instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the processor to:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.