GB893664A - Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of flat glass - Google Patents

Abstract

893,664. Rolling sheet glass. PILKINGTON BROS. Ltd., and PILKINGTON, L. A. B. April 22, 1958 [May 3, 1957], No. 40402/61. Divided out of 893,663. Class 56. In apparatus for rolling molten glass into ribbon form, the casting rolls, to which the molten glass is fed and by them converted into ribbon form, are housed in an enclosure erected about the rolls and means are provided for maintaining at a plenum within the enclosure a protecting atmosphere to ensure that ingress into the enclosure of ambient atmospheres is prevented. As shown, molten glass 11 in a glass melting tank 1 is fed under a tweel 2, over a spout 3 with lip 4 and between side walls 5 to the pass between water-cooled rolls 6, 7, driven by power means not shown, the rolls 6, 7 being angled as shown so that the ribbon 23 of glass is directed downwardly and forwardly on to a molten bath 15. The bath 15 is enclosed in a tank structure 12 and under a roof structure 17 which is supplied with a protecting atmosphere, such as coal gas by a series of ducts 39 connected by branches 40 to headers 41. An adjustable end wall 18 to the roof structure 17 provides a front wall to an enclosure for the rolls 6, 7 and which includes a roof 25 and side walls 26, the roof 25 extending back to a gate 10 which is adjustably suspended in contiguity with the upper roll 6 and which shields the roll from the heat radiated from the molten glass 11. The enclosure is completed by the rear wall 14 of the tank 12 which meets the spout 3. The protecting atmosphere in the enclosure may be passed under the wall 18 from the ducting 39 or may be admitted direct.