A glass composition includes a glass frit and an electrostatic force reinforcing material including polymethylhydrosiloxane derivatives. The electrostatic force reinforcing material is represented by the following Formula.

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Glass batch materials and processes for preparing and melting structured pellets of glass batch materials to produce molten glass. A structured pellet of glass batch materials may include a core and a shell surrounding the core. The core may include a mixture of glass-forming materials and the shell may include a thermally-activated material. The thermally-activated material may be formulated to undergo an exothermic chemical reaction when heated to a temperature at or above a threshold temperature such that heat is transferred from the shell to the mixture of glass-forming materials in the core.

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.

In a method of manufacturing porous glass base for optical fiber, a liquid organic siloxane raw material stored in a raw material tank of internal pressure P1 is controlled by a mass flow controller at a predetermined flow rate and pumped through pipe of internal pressure P2 to a vaporizer, the liquid raw material is vaporized in the vaporizer and supplied as a gas raw material to a burner, and the silica fine particles formed by burning the gas raw material in the burner are deposited to form a porous glass base material, where P1?P2 is satisfied.

Disclosed herein are methods for making glass, comprising forming a slurry comprising at least one fining agent; adjusting the pH of the slurry to a value ranging from about 3 to about 12; combining the slurry with glass batch materials to form a batch composition; and melting the batch composition. Methods for reducing agglomerates in a glass melt are also disclosed herein. Further disclosed herein are systems for making glass, the systems comprising a pre-mixing vessel for preparing a slurry comprising at least one fining agent; an ultrasonic vessel for applying ultrasonic energy to the slurry; a mixing vessel for combining the slurry with glass batch materials to form a batch composition; and a melting vessel for melting the batch composition.

To provide a method for producing granules as glass raw material without using a binder that contains an alkali metal or boron. In the method, granules are produced by mixing a glass raw material composition and water. A method for producing granules to be used for the production of alkali-free glass, which comprises mixing a glass raw material composition and water, wherein the glass raw material composition essentially comprises an aluminum source containing calcium aluminate represented by CaO.2Al.sub.2O.sub.3, a calcium source containing one or both of calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide, and a silicon source.

The invention relates to a process for producing SiO.sub.2 granules by freezing and re-thawing an SiO.sub.2 suspension, wherein a separation of liquid and sediment composed of agglomerated SiO.sub.2 particles occurs in the course of thawing, the liquid removed is decanted and the residual moisture in the sediment is removed by a drying step with formation of the SiO.sub.2 granules. According to the invention, an auxiliary comprising alkali metal-free bases in the form of nitrogen hydrides is added to the suspension to set the pH greater than 7.

The invention relates to a glass production method comprising charging a glass furnace with solid-state raw materials, said raw materials comprising granular glassy sodium silicate and having a moisture content of less than 1%, preferably 0%, by weight, and powdered calcium oxide.

The present invention relates to a glass ceramic powder comprising i) a glass material formed from a glass mixture containing a lithium and oxygen containing compound selected from Li.sub.2O and/or Li.sub.2CO.sub.3, SiO.sub.2, K.sub.2O, La.sub.2O.sub.3, and ii) seed particles comprising Li.sub.2SiO.sub.3 crystals and/or Li.sub.2Si.sub.2O.sub.5 crystals. The present invention also relates to a method of manufacturing of said glass ceramic powder, a method for preparing compacted and sintered bodies from the glass ceramic powder and bodies obtainable by said method.

A method of preparing a stable slurry of particles of glass precursors for spray drying and subsequent melting, such as by plasma melting, comprising grinding all constituent particles down to less than 50 microns in size, more desirably down to less than 25 or even less than 20 microns in size, removing the water from, or reducing the water content of the particles, mixing the particles with a liquid polymer binder and dispersant at a solids loading in the range of from 20-30%, more particularly in the range of from 22-27%, more desirably 24% by volume.