Patent GB-905235-A (GB)
Title: An improved process and apparatus for the manufacture of fibres from fusible mineral materials ,more particularly glass and its derivatives
IPC: C03B37/06
Filed: 1959-09-28
Abstract: 905,235. Glass fibre manufacture. DESPRES, J., and SOMMER, H. E. Sept. 28, 1959 [Oct. 3, 1958], No. 32914/59. Class 56. In the manufacture of long fibres of variable fineness from glass, the molten material is flowed into a reservoir in a thin adjustable layer over nozzles which disintegrate the molten glass into fibres, as by compressed air, steam, gases or by burners, into a vertically adjustable Venturi mounted above the nozzles, the thickness of the layer supplied to the nozzles being determined by the space between the bottom of a tube surrounding the Venturi and the upper part of a disintegrating nozzle and by an aspirated air current produced therein. Preferably the fibres are exposed to ultrasonic vibrations during their cooling period to make the fibres wavy and undulating and more apt to cling to each other. A reservoir 5, 6 of refractory material is enclosed by a metal casing 3, 3<SP>1</SP> and communicates directly with the tank 1 of molten glass which is maintained at a predetermined level. Concentric orifices 8, 10, 12, 14 are provided in the top and bottom of the reservoir 5, 6 and casing 3, 3<SP>1</SP> to hold the Venturi device and the compressed air and burner devices, respectively. A sleeve 18 is supported in orifice 14 by a nut 19 by which it can be raised or lowered together with an obturator tube 26 locked by a screw 28 against a shoulder 27. The upper part of sleeve 18 is fitted with a hood 22 screwed tightly against a flange 20 and having a supply pipe 23 for air which passes into sleeve 18 through orifices 25. Into the top of the sleeve 18 slides a sleeve 31 which is adjustable in height therein by a nut 32, the Venturi 34 being held against a flange 31a thereon by a nut 33 to lie inside the tube 26. A curved discharge tube 54 is secured in sleeve 31 by a nut 55. In the bottom orifice 12, a nozzle 36 is secured by a flange 35 held in place by a supply chest 39 screwed to a boss 11 adjacent orifice 12, the chest 39 forming a pressure chamber 40 having a feed pipe 41. Similarly further nozzles 42 and 46, each extending into the central orifice 37 of nozzle 36, are held in orifices in the chest 39 and in a mixing chamber 43 by, respectively, the chamber 43 and a water or steam chamber 47, the mixing chamber 43 having air or oxygen and gas pipelines 44, 45 for burner nozzle 42 and the water chamber 47 having a supply pipeline 48. The lower end of the tube 26 is cut inwardly at the same slope as the upper face of the nozzle 36 so that in its lowered position, the supply of molten glass is completely cut off and the amount of glass passing through to the nozzles is regulated by nut 19. These slopes are also the same as the slope of the outwardly-extending flange 34a of the Venturi 34. The amount of air drawn through pipe 23 is regulated by raising or lowering the Venturi 34, by nut 32, relative to tube 26. The bottom part 49 of the chamber 47 is formed as a mass of metal and is externally screw-threaded to receive a cap 50 which guides a second metal mass 51 with a flange 52 for positioning a piezoelectric quartz 53 which forms with the masses 49, 51 a triplet for transmitting ultrasonic vibrations produced by a high-frequency oscillating current. As well as for producing a jet of steam, the central nozzle 46, if enlarged, may be used to vaporize any product for treating the fibres such as a binder or a substance for rendering the fibres hydrophile. The disintegrating of the molten glass may be produced by connecting tube 54 to a vacuum pump which produces an induced current in the nozzles. Various small modifications are suggested.