Methods for making a glass material and apparatus

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for making a glass material are provided. The apparatus comprises a level sensor configured to measure a level of molten glass within a glass melter, a level controller operatively connected to the level sensor, a batch material sensor configured to measure a characteristic of a quantity of batch material, an estimator operatively connected to the batch material sensor, a batch fill rate controller configured to calculate a speed command, and a batch delivery device configured to fill the glass melter. The methods comprise the steps of controlling an actual batch fill rate of batch material entering the glass melter. The step of controlling further comprises estimating a batch fill rate of batch material entering the glass melter, and controlling the actual batch fill rate based on a comparison between a predetermined batch fill rate and the estimated batch fill rate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.