Methods and apparatus for producing fibers from igneous rock, including basalt include heating igneous rock by electrical conductive coils to achieve an homogenous melt and forming homogenous fibers from the melt.

A feed assembly for a melting chamber having a plurality of walls and at least one submerged burner, and related methods of its operation are disclosed. The feed assembly includes a tubular body being hollow and having a first end and extending to a second end. The second end is for connecting to one of the plurality of walls. The tubular body further includes a port proximate the second end wherein the port has a first port end and tapers radially inwardly to a second port end at the second end. The feed assembly also has a batch charger disposed within the tubular body and having a first charger end and extending to a second charger end.

A method for producing fused silica including pre-heating silica sand by passing the silica sand through a gas flame, distributing the pre-heated silica sand to a furnace having an internal temperature of about 1,713 C. or greater to form molten fused silica, and cooling the molten fused silica by flowing the molten silica from the furnace into a water bath to produce fused silica particulates.

A system and method of controlling a metal melting process in a melting furnace, including determining at least one furnace parameter characterizing a melting furnace, adding a charge containing solid metal into the melting furnace, detecting at least one charge parameter characterizing the charge, firing a burner into the melting furnace to provide heat to melt the charge, and exhausting burner combustion products from the furnace, detecting at least one process parameter characterizing progress of melting the charge, calculating a furnace efficiency based on the at least one furnace parameter, calculating a predicted process pour readiness time based on the at least one charge parameter, the at least one process parameter, and the furnace efficiency, and controlling the metal melting process based on the predicted process pour readiness time.

A feed assembly having a hollow tubular body and a batch charger disposed within the hollow tubular body is disclosed. The hollow tubular body extends along a central axis from a first end to a second end and, further, comprises a port that tapers from a first port end to a second port end at the second end of the tubular body. The batch charger includes a first charger end proximate the first end of the tubular body and a second charger end proximate the second end of the tubular body. The second charger end is spaced away from the second end of the tubular body to provide a port space within the port. An apparatus that includes a melting chamber and a feed assembly is also disclosed along with a method of feeding batch materials into a melting chamber.

To provide high-strength granules having a broad range of applications of the glass composition, and a method for their production. The method for producing glass raw material granules comprises mixing and granulating a glass raw material composition with water, wherein the glass raw material composition contains at least silica and an aluminum source, and the aluminum source contains hydraulic alumina.

A glass furnace includes a furnace chamber for containing glass melt and a conveyor for receiving glass batch material and feeding the glass batch material to the furnace chamber. A dam wall is disposed with respect to the conveyor such that batch material from the conveyor must flow upward over the dam wall before entering the furnace chamber. The top of the dam wall may be below the level of the melt pool in the furnace chamber.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method of making a mineral melt, the method comprising the steps of providing a circulating combustion chamber (1); injecting fuel, preheated mineral material and combustion gas into the circulating combustion chamber (1); combusting the fuel in the circulating combustion chamber (1) thereby melting the mineral material to form a mineral melt and generating exhaust gases; separating the exhaust gases from the mineral melt, collecting the mineral melt (9) and passing the exhaust gases (10) to a heat exchange system, the method being characterised in that the mineral material comprises a first mineral material and a second mineral material wherein the first mineral material has a higher sintering temperature than the second mineral material and the first and second mineral materials are provided separately to the heat exchange system, wherein the first mineral material is preheated through contact with the exhaust gases and subsequently the second mineral material is preheated through contact with the exhaust gases and the preheated first mineral material.

A glass furnace includes a furnace chamber including a side wall and a bottom wall and containing a pool of glass melt having a melt level. A batch feed hopper is adjacent to the side wall of the furnace chamber to supply batch material under gravity to a bottom of the hopper. A feed opening is in the side wall of the furnace chamber and feeds batch material from the bottom of the hopper to the pool of glass melt below the melt level. A conveyor is proximate the bottom wall of the hopper and feeds the batch material from the bottom of the hopper through the feed opening and into the furnace chamber.

A glass furnace includes a furnace chamber for containing glass melt and a conveyor for receiving glass batch material and feeding the glass batch material to the furnace chamber. A dam wall is disposed with respect to the conveyor such that batch material from the conveyor must flow upward over the dam wall before entering the furnace chamber. The top of the dam wall may be below the level of the melt pool in the furnace chamber.