Methods for controlling a converter for converting glass tubes to glass articles include preparing condition sets including settings for a plurality of process parameters, operating the converter to produce glass articles, measuring attributes of the glass articles, operating the converter at each of the condition sets, associating each glass article with a condition set used to produce the glass article and the attributes measured, developing operational models from the attributes measured and the condition sets, determining run settings for each of the plurality of process parameters based on the operational models, and operating the converter with each of the process parameters set to the run settings determined from the operational models.

For the monitoring of the application of a vacuum to the finished moulds (1, 2) of a glass moulding machine, in particular of an I.S. machine, an arrangement is proposed which is composed of a vacuum sensor (13, 14), which vacuum sensor is arranged in a vacuum line (5, 6) which charges the finished mould (1, 2) and which vacuum sensor is designed for pressure measurement and detects a pressure value, which pressure value is transmitted by way of a microcontroller (15, 16) of an I.S. machine controller (22) by way of which, in a manner dependent on the measured value, a hollow glass article can be identified as being defective and rejected. The arrangement permits automated monitoring of the vacuum operation and a lessening of the burden on operating personnel, and serves for the automated assurance of product quality.

Methods for controlling a converter for converting glass tubes to glass articles include preparing condition sets including settings for a plurality of process parameters, operating the converter to produce glass articles, measuring attributes of the glass articles, operating the converter at each of the condition sets, associating each glass article with a condition set used to produce the glass article and the attributes measured, developing operational models from the attributes measured and the condition sets, determining run settings for each of the plurality of process parameters based on the operational models, and operating the converter with each of the process parameters set to the run settings determined from the operational models.

A method for generating a cutting plan of a complex glazing product including a glass sheet and a layer other than a glass sheet, the method including obtaining a map of the defects of the glass sheet; obtaining at least one other defect map, the defects of the other map not being defects of a glass sheet; each of the maps including, for each of its defects, a position of the defect, a size of the defect, and a criticality level of the defect; generating a cutting plan of the complex glazing product using the maps and a specification taking into account the criticality levels, the cutting plan including a cutting line and being such that none of the cutting lines passes through an exclusion zone of the defect of the glass sheet, wherein a cutting line passes through an exclusion zone of a defect of the other map.

To provide a method of processing a tempered glass in which a length of time required for manufacturing one plate of a product glass is significantly reduced while the quality of the product glass is secured. In the method of processing the tempered glass in which a stacked block (1a) acting as a chemical tempered glass (1) is processed by using a processing device (8) under a condition that the processing device (8) is rotated and vibrated, the stacked block (1a) is cut out from a stack (1A) acting as the chemical tempered glass (1) by using a dicing blade (84), prior to the processing of the stacked block (1a) by using the processing device (8), and a finishing to an outer periphery of the stacked block (1a) is also performed during the processing of the stacked block (1a) by using the processing device (8).

A method for cutting out pieces of glass from a glass sheet, includes, a step of automatic generation by a computer with a storage unit, containing programs to calculate a first optimum plan for guillotine cutting at a number of hierarchical levels of different pieces from each of the glass sheet, as a function of information; a step of reading information relating to defects in the glass sheet, a step of automatic generation by a computer with a storage unit, containing programs to calculate a second optimum plan for guillotine cutting at a number of hierarchical levels from the glass sheet, based on the first optimum cutting plan and at least some of the information relating to the defects, including permutations of cross cut sections at the same hierarchical level within the glass sheet; a step of cutting pieces of glass in accordance with the second optimum cutting plan generated.

A gob forming device for forming a gob that is fed into a mold for molding a glass product after adjusting the gob to an optimum weight and shape, the gob forming device comprising: one or two cameras 71,72 configured to capture one or more images of a gob in the falling path of the gob, the gob being obtained by cutting molten glass extruded from a circular orifice 11 of a gob feeder 1; an image processor 70 configured to perform image processing to measure the weight of the gob and feature values of the gob based on the one or more 2-D images of the gob captured by the one or two cameras, the feature values defining the shape of the gob, the weight and the feature values being measured by approximating the shape of the gob's cross section in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction as a circle or ellipse and; drive mechanisms 40, 50, and 64 to 66 configured to individually drive respective adjustment mechanisms to adjust the gob to achieve a desired weight and shape; a storage device configured to store, as reference data, a standard weight of the gob and an optimum value of each of the feature values of the gob; and a control device 8 configured to drive the drive mechanisms 40, 50, and 64 to 66 so that the drive mechanisms operate to ensure that the difference between the weight of the gob measured by the image processor 70 and the corresponding reference data stored in the storage device is an acceptable value and the differences between the feature values of the gob measured by the image processor 70 and the corresponding reference data stored in the storage device are acceptable values.

A computer implemented methods for estimating at least one quality function of a given layered coating on a transparent substrate allows to predict at least one non in-process measured quality function of a given layered coating on a transparent substrate from an in-process measured quality function which can be acquired on the coated substrate as deposited at any location, preferably at the end of a coating process. The method allows to get rid of in-process real-time continuous measurements of quality functions of the coated transparent substrate and real-time monitoring of coating process parameters.

Methods for providing feedback control of converters for converting glass tubes to glass articles include a model predictive control framework. The methods include operating the converter, providing target values for attributes of the glass articles or glass tubes, measuring the attributes for the glass articles and glass tubes, conditioning the measurement data to remove outlier data points and calculating statistics representative of the measured attributes, and determine updated settings for one or more process parameters from the previous settings, the statistical properties, and the target values, where the updated settings are those that minimize an objective control function for the converter. The methods further include adjusting the process parameters to the updated settings. The model predictive control framework enables feedback control of the converter that compensates for disturbances that act on the process.

A method, system, and computer program for determining a ratio of components within a mixture by receiving image data associated with an image of a mixture of cullet and glass batch material, determining the temperature of the mixture from the image data of the mixture within a region of interest, determining a ratio of cullet to glass batch material in the mixture based on the temperature of the mixture, and causing an action based on the ratio of cullet to glass batch material in the mixture.