Improvements in annealing glass

• Main Author: ATKESON FLORIAN VICTOR
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 03.09.1958
• Subjects: CHEMISTRY; GLASS; MANUFACTURE, SHAPING, OR SUPPLEMENTARY PROCESSES; METALLURGY; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL

800,945. Annealing glassware. PITTSBURGH PLATE GLASS CO. April 23, 1956. No. 12364/56. Class 56. A ribbon of glass is annealed by being passed between cooling means and controlled heating elements positioned to moderate the cooling effect, each heating element having independently adjustable thermo-responsive switching means for controlling the elements, the ribbon passing through a cooling zone in which it is cooled to the upper limit of the annealing range, a second zone in which it is maintained substantially at the upper limit of the annealing range and then to an annealing zone in which the surfaces on both sides are cooled at a progressively increasing rate to the lower limit of the annealing range. As shown, a sheet of glass 10 is drawn vertically upwards from a bath of molton glass 11 past conventional cooling means such as coolers 12, baby coolers 13 and water cooled catch pans 14. Coolers 15 comprise a series of water cooled pipes 16 and a series of heating elements 18, 181 designed to bring the temperature of the glass to the top of its annealing range at a point between the first and second pairs of drawing rolls 21, 22, the heating elements being in two sets of three independently controlled circuits 18a, 18b, 18c varied in response to thermo-responsive elements 30a, 30b, 30c in sets of parts 29 on each side of the glass, the elements 30 lying just below the rolls 21. The elements 30 are constructed with filters responsive only to the 4 to 8 micron wavelength of infra-red radiation when the glass is opaque so that the element " reads " the radiated temperature only. Similar elements 32, 34-42, 321-421 between the pairs of rolls 21-27 control heating elements 31, 33- 41, 311-411 at each side of the glass sheet 10 to maintain the glass at the top of the annealing range up to the about the third rolls 23 to allow the temperature gradients within the glass to be minimized and then the rate of cooling is gradually increased until the minimum temperature of annealing is reached at about the sixth rolls 26, the annealing interval being shown at 50a, 50b on Fig. 4. In a construction for a horizontally conveyed glass sheet, in which the conveyer rolls support the under surface, the water cooled pipes are provided above the surface only, with heaters above and below, followed by heaters above and below and finally by coolers above only, the cooling effect of the conveyer rolls being taken into account and the thermo-responsive elements below the sheet are positioned further away than those above. The following compositions are given as typical plate glass and window glass respectively, in percentages, (1) SiO 2 ,71À57; Na 2 O,13À13; CaO, 11À62; MgO, 2À54; Na 2 SO 4 , À72 ; NaCl, À12; Fe2O3, À12; Al 2 O 3 , À20 having viscosity 1013.0 poises at the upper limit of annealing 1035‹F and viscosity 1015.4 poises at the lower limit 935‹F; (2) SiOz, 72À65; Na2O, 13À18; CaO, 8À47; MgO, 3À64; Na2SO4,À49; NaCl, -12 ; Fe2O3, À12; Al2O3, 1À33 with viscosity 1012.9 poises at the upper limit 1025‹F. and 1015.2 poises at the lower limit 920‹F.