Method and apparatus for producing glass film for coating metallic or nonmetallic bodies

摘要

A viscous glass layer, 1-13 mm thick, flows continuously downward under gravity in a glass melting furnace to a film drawing unit in which the cooling glass layer is drawn and stretched to a thickness of 0.2-0.4 mm and then, as a partly solidified glass film, continues to cool. Independent claims are included for the following: (a) process equipment in which the glass melting furnace (1) has one or more orifices (11) at the lower end below which a rotating cylinder reduces the emerging glass layer to a thin film; (b) a use of the glass film as a coating material to improve impact resistance or as a water barrier. Preferred Features: The glass layer may be profiled in the transverse direction in the film drawing unit. Additional material layers may be melted onto the glass layer to form specific products. Glass film may be stacked into layers to form a glass composite with profiled glass layers forming hollow chambers between the layers. Heat resistant plates may comprise layers of differently profiled glass films bonded together. Cylindrical glass films are produced by winding thin glass film onto a cylinder to form a tube of the required thickness.