A method of forming a glass ribbon including flowing molten glass into a sheet forming device to form formed glass. The formed glass having a first portion and a second portion, the first portion having a larger thickness than the second portion. The method further includes volumetrically heating the formed glass using an electromagnetic heating device, so that the first portion has a lower average viscosity than the second portion, and drawing the formed glass into a glass ribbon, such that the first portion is drawn with a higher rate of elongation than the second portion.

A glass manufacturing apparatus includes an enclosure including an interior area and a vessel positioned at least partially within the interior area of the enclosure. The vessel includes a trough and a forming wedge including a pair of downwardly inclined surfaces that converge at a root of the vessel. A draw plane extends from the root of the vessel through an opening of the enclosure in a draw direction. The apparatus includes a thermal shield moveable along an adjustment direction extending perpendicular to the draw plane. The thermal shield includes a non-metallic outer shell and a thermal insulating core. Additionally, methods of manufacturing a glass ribbon with the glass manufacturing apparatus are provided.

A method for making a glass ribbon that includes: flowing a glass into a caster having a width (W.sub.cast) from about 100 mm to about 5 m and a thickness (t) from about 1 mm to about 500 mm to form an a cast glass; cooling the cast glass in the caster to a viscosity of at least 10.sup.8 Poise; conveying the cast glass from the caster; drawing the cast glass, the drawing comprising heating the cast glass to an average viscosity of less than 10.sup.7 Poise and drawing the cast glass into a glass ribbon having a width (W.sub.ribbon) that is less than W.sub.cast; and thereafter cooling the glass ribbon to ambient temperature. Further, the cast glass during the cooling, conveying and drawing steps is about 50 C. or higher.

An apparatus is provided for producing thin glass ribbons from molten glass. The apparatus includes a drawing tank, a direct heater, and an indirect heater. The drawing tank has a lower elongated nozzle opening through which the molten glass can exit downwards. The direct heater has one or more heating circuits operable to heat the drawing tank in a first heating zone. The direct heater has a power source for each on the heating circuits. Each heating circuit has connections to connected to a wall of the drawing tank so that current from the power source flows through at least a portion of the wall and heats the wall. Each heating circuit also includes current-carrying portions of the wall. The indirect heater has one or more heating elements to heat the drawing tank in a second heating zone.

Described herein are glass forming apparatuses with cooled muffle assemblies and methods for using the same to form glass ribbons. According to one embodiment, a muffle assembly for a fusion forming apparatus may include a muffle frame comprising a back wall, a front wall opposite the back wall, and a pair of sidewalls joining the front wall to the back wall in a closed-loop. At least one first cooling tube may extend through the back wall and the front wall across the closed-loop. At least one second cooling tube may extend through the back wall and the front wall across the closed loop such that the at least one second cooling tube is spaced apart from and parallel with the at least one first cooling tube.

A flexible method of controlling the thickness of a material ribbon, in particular a glass ribbon, as well as an apparatus to implement such a method. To this end, a material in a heated and softened state is drawn into a ribbon and is then cooled down. During the forming process during which the ribbon is formed and drawn, the material is heated. During the forming process thermal energy at least partially in the form of thermal radiation that is emitted from a surface of a heated heating element. that is located opposite the material, is supplied to the material. Heating of heating element occurs at least partially through the energy of a laser beam that is directed onto heating element, thereby locally heating the heating element.

A method for processing glass elements is provided. The method includes introducing a perforation line for parting a glass element introduced into the glass element during or after a hot processing process at an elevated temperature of at least 100 C. Spaced-apart filamentary flaws are introduced into the glass element along the predetermined course of the perforation line by a pulsed laser beam of an ultrashort pulse laser, and, during or after the introduction of the filamentary flaws, the glass element is cooled down so as to produce a temperature gradient, which induces a mechanical stress at the filamentary flaws, whereby the breaking force required for parting the glass element along the perforation line is reduced.

A standalone lithium ion-conductive solid electrolyte including a freestanding inorganic vitreous sheet of sulfide-based lithium ion conducting glass is capable of high performance in a lithium metal battery by providing a high degree of lithium ion conductivity while being highly resistant to the initiation and/or propagation of lithium dendrites. Such an electrolyte is also itself manufacturable, and readily adaptable for battery cell and cell component manufacture, in a cost-effective, scalable manner.

A manufacturing method for a band-shaped glass includes a forming step, which forms a band-shaped glass, an annealing step, which performs an annealing treatment on the band-shaped glass, a cooling step, which cools the annealed band-shaped glass, a direction-changing step, which changes a feeding direction of the cooled band-shaped glass from a longitudinal direction to a horizontal direction, and a horizontal conveying step, which conveys the band-shaped glass in the horizontal direction while supporting the band-shaped glass at a horizontal conveyance part. In the horizontal conveying step, the band-shaped glass is conveyed in the horizontal direction while a first propulsion for driving the conveyance in the horizontal direction is provided at both sides in the width direction of the band-shaped glass by the horizontal conveyance part, the first propulsion being larger than a second propulsion provided at a center in the width direction of the band-shaped glass.

A method of manufacturing a glass sheet stably reduces a variation in a thermal shrinkage rate to 15 ppm or less. The method includes a melting step of melting, in an electric melting furnace, a glass batch prepared so as to give glass comprising 3 mass % or less of B.sub.2O.sub.3, a forming step of forming a molten glass into a sheet-shaped glass, an annealing step of annealing the sheet-shaped glass in an annealing furnace, and a cutting step of cutting the annealed sheet-shaped glass into predetermined dimensions, to thereby obtain a glass sheet having a -OH value of less than 0.2/mm and a thermal shrinkage rate of 15 ppm or less. The method includes measuring a thermal shrinkage rate of the glass sheet and adjusting a cooling rate of the sheet-shaped glass in the annealing step depending on variation in thermal shrinkage rate with respect to a target value.