GB998670A - Improvements in or relating to electric furnaces for the manufacture of glass - Google Patents

Abstract

998,670. Electrically heated glass furnaces. COMPAGNIE DE SAINT-GOBAIN. Nov. 7, 1961 [Nov. 7, 1960], No. 39858/61. Heading H5H. The electrodes in the melting compartment of a glass furnace, in which the starting materials are introduced at the top and the molten glass passes out through an opening near the bottom, extend into the charge and form two or more horizontal grids, each of three or more electrodes, arranged one above the other. Sets of parallel electrodes forming consecutive grids may, for a rectangular furnace plan, be arranged either parallel or perpendicular to one another, 8, 9, 10, Fig. 2, and Fig. 3, or, in a hexagonal furnace, may be arranged at successive angles of 120 degrees (Figs. 4 and 5, not shown); a circular furnace is also mentioned. Current may be passed only between different grids, or only between the different electrodes of each grid, by connecting the electrodes of each grid in parallel, or by suitably connecting a threephase supply, which latter also enables more complicated flow patterns to be produced, Fig. 2. Independent control of the current supply to the various grids permits refining of the glass in the lower part of the melting chamber; alternatively, the molten glass may pass to a separate electrically heated refining chamber.