Patent ID: 7260960

Claim:
A method of controlling the reaction paths of glass batch components added to a glass melt residing in a glass melter, said glass melt having a melt viscosity η m at a resident melt temperature T m (K), comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of raw material batch components in amounts according to a batch recipe, said plurality of raw material batch components comprising at least one glass-former material and at least one of a modifier material; combining a first portion of said plurality of raw material batch components to provide a first combination material having a melting temperature which is in a range of 60 to 90% of said resident melt temperature T m and a viscosity at said melting temperature that is greater than or equal to said melt viscosity η m /100; combining a second portion of said plurality of raw material batch components to provide a second combination material having a reaction temperature in a range of 60 to 100% of said resident melt temperature, such that said second combination material is capable of forming an intermediate compound via a solid state reaction prior to reacting with said glass melt; mixing said first combination material, said second combination material and any remaining portion of said plurality of raw material batch components to form a batch mixture; and introducing said batch mixture into the glass melter.