Method of manufacturing glass articles, method of manufacturing glass gobs, and method of manufacturing optical elements

• Main Authors: Iguchi, Yoshinori, Utsugi, Katsumi, Uezaki, Atsushi, Watanabe, Junichi, Saito, Tetsuya, Murakami, Akira
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.01.2012

A method of manufacturing high-quality preforms from glass melt, manufacturing glass elements, such as lenses, by press molding these preforms and, manufacturing optical elements by reheating and press molding these glass gobs. In the method glass gobs are continuously separated from a glass melt flow continuously flowing out of a nozzle and the separated glass gobs are formed with glass forming members that are intermittently or continuously moving. A support member is made to approach the front end of the nozzle, the front end of the glass melt flow is received by the support member, and the support member is dropped more rapidly than the rate of flow of the glass melt flow to separate a glass gob from the glass melt flow. The separated glass gob is transferred from the support member to a stopped or moving glass forming member to mold a glass article.