A glass melting furnace and method for introducing batch feed material into a glass melter tank of the glass melting furnace are disclosed. The glass melting furnace comprises the glass melter tank, a feeder tank, and at least one conduit. The glass melter tank defines at least one melter tank inlet, a molten glass outlet, and an exhaust gas outlet, and the feeder tank, which is separate from the glass melter tank, defines a batch feed inlet and a feeder tank outlet. The at least one conduit is in fluid communication with the feeder tank outlet and the melter tank inlet. Moreover, the melter tank inlet is defined below a melt level of a glass melt contained within the glass melter tank and at least partially filling the at least one conduit.

The present invention provides a red light emitting glass ceramic and a preparation method thereof, and an LED/LD light emitting device. A.sub.2Al.sub.4Si.sub.5O.sub.18:Eu.sup.2+ cordierite of the red light emitting glass ceramic capable of realizing blue light excited red light emission is a crystal phase material, wherein A is at least one of Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba and Zn and at least comprises Mg. The present invention particularly provides the red light emitting glass ceramic taking a chemical formula A.sub.2Al.sub.4Si.sub.5O.sub.18:Eu.sup.2+ as a crystal phase. The present invention further provides a preparation method of the transparent glass ceramic. The glass ceramic comprising the crystal phase, with the chemical formula of Mg.sub.2Al.sub.4Si.sub.5O.sub.18:Eu.sup.2+, is excited by blue light to emit red light, the internal/external quantum efficiencies reaching up to 94.5%/70.6%, respectively.

A method of treating a ceramic body in a glass making process includes delivering a molten glass to a heated ceramic body, the ceramic body including a ceramic phase and an intergranular glass phase, the molten glass being in contact with a surface of the ceramic body. The method further includes contacting the ceramic body with a first electrode and contacting the molten glass with a second electrode. The method further includes applying an electric field between the first electrode and the second electrode to create an electric potential difference across the ceramic body between the first and second electrodes, the electric potential difference being less than an electrolysis threshold of the ceramic phase and the intergranular glass phase. The intergranular glass phase demixes under driven diffusion in the applied electric field and mobile cations in the intergranular glass phase enrich proximate one of the first and second electrode.

A glass tank furnace having a length to width ratio of no less than 2.3 and no greater than 2.8. The glass tank furnace includes one or more weirs and a plurality of bubbling tubes provided on a bottom of the glass tank furnace. The plurality of bubbling tubes are disposed before, behind, or on the weirs.

An optical glass may be a phosphate based glass containing at least any one of oxides selected from TiO2, Nb2O5, WO3, and Bi2O2. The total content (HR) of the TiO2, Nb2O5, WO3, and Bi2O2 may be 35 mol % or above, the noble metal content may be less than 2.0 ppm, and the βOH value, given by the following general formula, may be 0.1 mm-1 or above: βOH=−[ln(B/A)]/t.

An optical glass may be a phosphate based glass containing at least any one of oxides selected from TiO2, Nb2O5, WO3, and Bi2O2. The total content (HR) of the TiO2, Nb2O5, WO3, and Bi2O2 may be 35 mol % or above, the noble metal content may be less than 2.0 ppm, and the βOH value, given by the following general formula, may be 0.1 mm-1 or above: βOH=−[ln(B/A)]/t.

A method for producing a glass product having a low bubble content from a melt is provided, wherein the melt at least partly comes into contact with a noble metal-comprising component.

Methods and a glass manufacturing system are described herein that impact compaction in a glass sheet. For instance, a method is described herein for impacting compaction in a glass sheet made by a glass manufacturing system. In addition, a glass manufacturing system is described herein which manufactures a glass sheet that meets a compaction target. Plus, a method is described herein for maintaining an uniform compaction between glass sheets made by different glass manufacturing systems.

A system and method are described herein for controlling an environment around an inlet tube in the glass manufacturing system. More specifically, the system and method control a level of hydrogen within a humid gas mixture that flows over an exterior of the inlet tube to effectively suppress the formation of undesirable gaseous inclusions in molten glass that flows through the inlet tube.

A glass forming apparatus includes a glass delivery vessel, a forming body with a forming body inlet and a downcomer (48) between the glass delivery vessel and the forming body. The downcomer includes a downcomer tube (100) with an inlet end (110) for receiving molten glass from the glass delivery vessel and an outlet end (109) for discharging molten glass to the forming body inlet. An upper heating zone (110) and a lower heating zone (150) positioned downstream from the upper heating zone (110) encircle the downcomer tube and a lower controlled atmosphere enclosure (155) is positioned around and sealed to the downcomer tube (100) in the lower heating zone (150). The lower controlled atmosphere enclosure (155) includes at least one heating element (156) for heating molten glass flowing through the downcomer tube within the forming body inlet.