Patent EP-2361890-A2 (EP)
Inventor: LENTES FRANK-THOMAS DR
IPC: F27D27/00
Filed: 2011-02-17
Abstract: The apparatus (1) for homogenization of a glass melt (3), comprises a stirrer, which is arranged in a stirring vessel (2) receiving the glass melt, where the stirring vessel has an inlet (4) and an outlet (5). The stirrer has a stirring shaft rotatable in a circumferential direction, and three stirring wings that are spatially arranged to each other along the stirring shaft. The stirring wings are arranged as paddle-like elements, which have a front-side paddle surface displacing the glass melt and a rear-side paddle surface. A mounting element is arranged on one of the paddle surfaces. The apparatus (1) for homogenization of a glass melt (3), comprises a stirrer, which is arranged in a stirring vessel (2) receiving the glass melt, where the stirring vessel has an inlet (4) and an outlet (5). The stirrer has a stirring shaft rotatable in a circumferential direction, and three stirring wings that are spatially arranged to each other along the stirring shaft. The stirring wings are arranged as paddle-like elements, which have a front-side paddle surface displacing the glass melt and a rear-side paddle surface. A mounting element is arranged on one of the paddle surfaces and extends itself from the paddle surfaces to the stirring shaft. The paddle-like stirring wings are arranged in several planes in an axial direction along the stirring shaft. An intermediate space, in which the stirring wing does not protrude, is kept free between the two adjacent planes. The planes are equidistantly arranged to each other in the axial direction. An area projected vertical to a rotational axis of the stirring shaft covers each intermediate space and corresponds to 5-90% of the projected areas, which cover the stirring wing of one plane and the associated partial area of the stirring shaft. The stirring wings are radially symmetrically arranged in each of the planes. One of the planes radial-symmetrically and azimuthally displaces the stirring wing to an adjacent plane based on the stirring wing. The reduced stirring wings are arranged on the first and/or last plane and have a smaller areal extent than the stirring wing arranged in the remaining planes. The stirring wings are arranged in the first two planes in a first inclined position to the rotational axis of the stirring shaft and the stirring wings are arranged in the last two planes in a reversed inclination position. The first inclination position causes a displacement conveying the glass melt to the outlet of the stirring vessel. The mounting element arranged on the respective stirring wings is disposed at the rear-side paddle surface, and corresponds to an individual plate-like element or parallelly arranged rod-shaped elements. The mounting element has a triangular shape. The mounting element has an edge, which extends from the stirring shaft in radial direction along the paddle surface with an edge length, which is lesser than the length of the paddle surface extending itself in the radial direction at a predetermined distance. The front-side paddle surface has a convexly curved shape. The stirrer has a gap between the wing edges of the stirring wings and the inner wall of the stirring vessel, where the size of the gap corresponds to 4.5-10.5% of the diameter of the stirring vessel. The wing edges of the stirring wings are formed as rounded edge areas. The paddle-like stirring wings are formed as flat elements, which have an edge area oriented to the inner wall of the stirring vessel, where the edge area has a thickness of maximum of 5 mm. The diameter of the stirring shaft corresponds to 25-50% of the diameter of the stirring vessel.