Patent ID: 8006519

Claim:
A fiberizing bushing having at least 4000 tips for fiberizing a molten glass material through the tips to make fibers having an average fiber diameter in the range of about 16 microns, or about 13 microns, or about 10 microns or less with the variation in flow through all of the operating tips being such that the diameters of all of the fibers formed from the bushing are within the range of +/− 5-7 microns, the bushing comprising at least one wall and a tip plate having an array of 4000 or more hollow tips extending beneath the bottom surface of the tip plate, each of the tips having a channel therethrough with each channel having an interior diameter (ID), the 4000 or more tips comprising a plurality of interior tips, a plurality of extreme outer peripheral tips and a plurality of shielded tips, the latter located between the plurality of interior tips and the plurality of extreme outer peripheral tips, the ID of at least some of the tips in the extreme outer periphery having an ID that is different than the ID of at least some of the plurality of the shielded tips and at least some of the tips in the plurality of the shielded tips having an ID that is different than the ID of at least some of the interior tips such that at operating temperatures the flow of molten glass through the extreme outer peripheral tips and through the shielded tips is so similar to the flow in the interior tips such that the variation of all of the diameters of all the fibers produced from the 4000 or more tips of said fiberizing bushing is within the range of +/− 7 microns of the average fiber diameter of all the fibers.