An improved slot down-draw process for forming glass sheets having a thickness less than 200 μm from glass formulations that have melting points near or above 1200° C. is provided. The improvements allow easier maintenance of the slot assembly and better management of the thermal expansions experienced by some components of the slot down-draw system.

A large-flow precious metal channel is provided, which comprises a molten glass mixed-flow stirring section, at least two molten glass heating, clarifying and cooling sections are connected in parallel at one end of the molten glass mixed-flow stirring section, the other end of which is communicated with a liquid supply tank. The channel is mainly used for the clarification and homogenization of large-flow high-temperature molten glass in the production process of 8.5-generation and higher-generation TFT glass, and provides bubble-free and streak-free high-quality molten glass for subsequent float forming or overflow forming processes.

Submerged combustion burners having a burner body and a burner tip connected thereto. The burner body has an external conduit and first and second internal conduits substantially concentric therewith, forming first and second annuli for passing a cooling fluid therethrough. A burner tip body is connected to the burner body at ends of the external and second internal conduits. The burner tip includes a generally central flow passage for a combustible mixture, the flow passage defined by an inner wall of the burner tip. The burner tip further has an outer wall and a crown connecting the inner and outer walls. The inner and outer walls, and the crown are comprised of same or different materials having greater corrosion and/or fatigue resistance than at least the external burner conduit.

In manufacturing a glass article (GR) by causing a molten glass (GM) to flow through a transfer pipe (12) and to be transferred, the transfer pipe (12) includes: a pipe end portion (14) being an end portion in a pipe axis direction; a pipe-shaped portion (15); and a joining portion (16) configured to join the pipe end portion (14) and the pipe-shaped portion (15) to each other. The pipe end portion (14) includes a flange portion (17) and a curved portion (18) extending from an inner peripheral end (17a) of the flange portion (17) toward the pipe-shaped portion (15) side and being reduced in diameter toward the pipe-shaped portion (15) side. The pipe end portion (14) is made of a material having a smaller creep rupture strength and/or a larger creep strain rate than the pipe-shaped portion (15) at 1,500° C. and 1,000 hours.

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.

An energy-efficient device for refining a glass melt to produce a glass and/or a glass ceramic is provided. The device includes a refining crucible defined at least by lateral walls with a metallic lining as a melt contact surface, so that a melt refining volume is defined by a base surface, a top surface and a circumferential surface; at least one heating device that conductively heats the lining by an electric current in the lining, so that the melt is heated through the lining, the heating device and the lining are connected to one another by a feeding device. The feeding device establishes contact with the lining so that an electric current runs from the top surface to the base surface or from the base surface to the top surface, at least in sections of the lining.

An apparatus and a method for producing glass products from a glass melt, avoiding bubble formation, are disclosed, wherein the apparatus includes a crucible and an internally component for processing the glass melt, and wherein, for heating the glass melt, the apparatus comprises an AC generator which energizes the crucible or stirring crucible via electrical connection elements. The component or stirring system is connected via a current-limiting choke having a variable impedance with the power supply elements. The impedance of the current-limiting choke is adjusted so that a AC density existing in the glass melt lies between a lower limit value and an upper limit value. By means of a choke and by adjusting the impedance it can be achieved that the AC load of the system can be minimized and that simultaneously the water decomposition reaction at the precious metal surfaces can positively be influenced.

An apparatus for processing a quantity of glass melt comprises a segmented tube including a first tube segment and a second tube segment. A second end portion of the first tube segment is joined to a first end portion of the second tube segment. In further examples, methods of fabricating a segmented torsion tube include joining together segmented torsion tubes at an integral solid-state joint.

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.