Method and equipment for manufacturing a thin, hollow glass item

Abstract

The invention relates to a method, comprising: feeding at least one molten-glass parison into a parison mold; forming, in the parison mold, a blank of an item from said at least one parison; transferring the blank of the item into a finishing mold; and forming the item in the finishing mold. While forming the item in the finishing mold, excess glass is directed out of the base of the item so as to form a convex bulge, and said bulge is removed such that the thickness of the base of the item is substantially constant.

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing a hollow glass item comprising walls and a bottom, said method comprising: feeding at least one molten-glass parison into a parison mold, forming, in the parison mold, a blank of the item from said at least one parison, transferring the blank of the item into a finishing mold, forming the item in the finishing mold, wherein while forming the item in the finishing mold, excess glass is directed out of the bottom of the item so as to form a convex bulge, and removing the convex bulge such that the thickness of the bottom of the item is substantially constant.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein during forming the item in the finishing mold, the gas forming between the main faces of the walls of the item and the inner walls of said finishing mold is channeled toward the outside of said finishing mold.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: at least one cutting step to eliminate the outer bulge from the bottom of the item; and at least one polishing step applied to an outer face of the bottom of the item.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein removing the convex bulge is performed by an apparatus configured to eliminate the convex bulge to obtain a substantially constant thickness of the bottom of the item.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the walls of the hollow glass item have a thickness of between 0.5 and 3 mm, and the bottom of the hollow glass item has a thickness of between 1.5 and 4 mm.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The features and advantages of the invention will appear in the following description, provided as an example and done in reference to the appended drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of part of equipment for manufacturing a thin, hollow glass item, according to the invention.

(3) FIGS. 2 to 6 are diagrammatic vertical cross-sectional views of the parison mold and the finishing mold of the equipment, respectively, according to the invention.

(4) FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic view of a hollow glass item obtained after the forming step in the finishing mold, and

(5) FIG. 8 is a diagrammatic perspective view of the final hollow glass item.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

(6) Hereafter, the equipment for implementing the method according to the invention will be described for manufacturing a hollow glass item 30, for example a bottle with a generally parallelepiped shape including thin side walls 31 and a thin bottom 32, as shown in FIG. 8. The side walls 31 have a thickness comprised between 0.5 and 3 mm, and preferably approximately 1 mm, and the bottom 32 has a thickness comprised between 1.5 and 4 mm.

(7) Of course, this equipment also makes it possible to manufacture hollow items with various shapes and a small thickness.

(8) As shown in FIG. 1, the equipment includes a molten glass distributor 1 placed in a furnace, not shown, and a parison mold generally designated by reference 10.

(9) The distributor 1 of the known type delivers, at the outlet of a pouring orifice 2, a parison 3 which, traditionally, is cut using scissors, not shown.

(10) At the outlet of the distributor 1, the parison 3 falls into a duct 4 which conveys it to the parison mold 10 including a cavity 10a for forming a blank 5. To that end, the cavity 10a of the parison mold 10 includes a funnel 13 at its inlet.

(11) As shown diagrammatically in FIG. 2, the lower part of the parison mold 10 includes a blower nozzle 12 connected to a pressurized gas supply device, for example such as air, not shown.

(12) Once the parison 3 is introduced into the cavity 10a of the parison mold 10, a bottom 14 is placed on the funnel 13 on the upper opening of said parison mold, and pressurized air is injected through the blower nozzle 12 to compact the glass and form a ring 5a on the blank 5, as shown in FIG. 3. The bottom 14 is then raised to make it possible to remove the funnel 13. This bottom 14 is positioned on top of the parison mold 10, making it possible to shape the bottom of the blank 5, and pressurized air is blown through the nozzle 12.

(13) The blank 5 of the item 30 is thus obtained.

(14) Thus, the blank 5 is stripped and transferred by a handling arm 15 (FIG. 1) pivoting around an axis 15a, in a finishing mold 20 diagrammatically shown in FIGS. 4 to 6. This finishing mold 20 includes a cavity 20a, the lower part of which is covered by a removable bottom 21. This removable bottom 21 makes it possible to shape the bottom 32 of the item 30 to be obtained.

(15) As appears in FIGS. 4 to 6, the bottom 21 of the cavity 20a includes a concave hollow 22. When the blank 5 has been introduced into the finishing mold 20 (FIG. 5), a blower nozzle 23 is mounted on the upper part of the finishing mold 20, said blower nozzle being connected to a device supplying pressurized gas, for example such as air (not shown).

(16) After this operation, pressurized gas is blown into the blank 5 so as to form the item 30 (FIG. 6).

(17) During the forming of said item 30 in the finishing mold 20, the excess glass is housed in the hollow 22 formed in the bottom 21 of said finishing mold 21 forming, toward the outside of the bottom of the item 30, a convex bulge 33, as shown in FIG. 7. Thus, the inner distribution of the bottom 32 of the item 30 subsides in the hollow 22 and the inner face 32a of the bottom 32 becomes horizontal.

(18) The item 30 obtained the finishing mold 20 is shown in FIG. 7 and is stripped from that finishing mold 20 by removing the removable bottom 21.

(19) Next, to eliminate the outer bulge 33 thus formed, the operators perform at least one cutting operation followed by at least one polishing operation of the outer face 32b of the bottom 32 of the item 30 so as to obtain a bottom 32 with a substantially constant thickness, as shown in FIG. 8.

(20) During the forming operation in the finishing mold 20, to allow the gaseous cushion that forms between the main faces of the blank 5 and the inner walls of the cavity 20a of said finishing mold 20, said finishing mold 20 includes at least one vent designated by reference 25 in FIGS. 4 to 6.

(21) In the example embodiment shown in these figures, each vent 25 is formed by a duct formed in the walls of the finishing mold 20. Each vent 25 inwardly includes an element allowing the gas to escape, while preventing the molten glass from flowing through that vent. Each vent 25 may be formed by any other arrangement in the finishing mold 20.

(22) Hot and cold chemical treatments may be done on the item 30 so as to reinforce the outer surface of the glass.

(23) The method according to the invention makes it possible to be able to obtain a thin, hollow glass item having a homogenous distribution of the glass and having the requisite solidity for this type of item despite the small thickness of the side walls and the bottom.