179results about "Sensitive elements" patented technology

The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing flat sheets of a glass-based material and to an apparatus therefor. The process comprises providing a glass preform, heating the glass preform in a furnace, forming a gob and a pre-sheet, removing the gob and drawing the glass pre-sheet into a flat glass sheet. Also provided is an apparatus for drawing a glass preform into a glass sheet, the apparatus comprising a draw furnace, stretching arms for stretching and drawing the pre-sheet into a glass sheet, and opposing edge rollers for applying a downward force on the glass sheet. The draw furnace may include a plurality of individual heating elements, the temperature of each heating element capable of being separately controlled. The apparatus may further include an annealing furnace for annealing the glass sheet.

A method and apparatus are disclosed for controlling temperature of a plant comprising plural temperature control zones, wherein an effective control parameter for a first zone for which a signal representing measured temperature is available is produced according to an algorithm relating measured temperature, a desired temperature and a control parameter associated with a device affecting temperature in the first temperature control zone, the effective control parameter is summed with an offset value representing a proportional offset of the effective control parameter of a second temperature control zone relative to the effective control parameter of the first temperature control zone and the result is applied to control a device affecting temperature in the second temperature control zone. Advantageously, the offset value comprises a fixed amount and a variable amount, the variable amount accounting for dynamic differences in temperature control characteristics of the first and second temperature control zones.

A three step method and apparatus for quenching a formed glass sheet in a manner that reduces cycle time without excessive temporary surface tension that can cause excessive breakage.

The method of making thin glass panes includes conveying a glass melt through a vertical inlet to a drawing tank with a slit nozzle; drawing a glass ribbon downward from the slit nozzle; setting a total throughput by setting length and cross section of the inlet and by heating and cooling the inlet to control glass melt viscosity so that pressure in the inlet decreases; and setting a throughput per unit of length in a lateral direction along the glass ribbon via nozzle system geometry and by heating and cooling of the drawing tank and slit nozzle to control melt viscosity, so that glass does not wet an underside of the slit nozzle near a breaking edge. The setting of the total throughput and the throughput per unit length are largely decoupled to simplify process control. An inventive apparatus for performing the method is also disclosed.

Certain example embodiments of this invention relate to apparatuses for sealing the tips of pump-out tubes of vacuum insulating glass (VIG) units, and / or associated methods. In certain example embodiments, a laser source used in sealing the pump-out tube is thermally insulated from the VIG unit and emits a laser beam through one or more windows in an oven towards a mirror located therein. The mirror is located so as to redirect the laser beam onto the pump-out tube to thereby seal it. For instance, a substantially horizontal laser beam emitted from a laser source located outside the oven enters into the oven through one or more windows and is reflected by a mirror towards the pump-out tube to be sealed. The repositioning of the laser source advantageously can change its effective focal length and / or the location of the laser beam, e.g., because of the fixed location of the mirror.

A control for use with a glass forming machine which is controlled by a programmable sequencer which defines a machine cycle having a set cycle time. A computerized model of a mathematical representation of a network constraint diagram of the unwrapped bottle forming process is provided for determining whether, with the following inputs: the time in an unwrapped bottle forming process for each displacement to occur; the machine cycle time; the motion durations of each of the mechanisms from the retracted position to the advanced position and from the advanced position to the retracted position and the collision zones between interfering paths, a collision will result between the gob, the parison, the bottle or any mechanism.