摘要 |
<p>The present invention proposes a novel apparatus and method for the manufacture of glass fibers utilizing a bushing confining a body of molten glass over an orifice plate which may or may not have depending tips. Interposed in the glass body is a plate or other device for reducing the pressure of the molten glass body over the orifice plate to a pressure no greater than atmospheric pressure. The orifices are of relatively large diameter incapable of imposing a substantial pressure drop on molten glass flowing therethrough. Each tip contains a pool of molten glass at no greater than atmospheric pressure and, during fiber attenuation, a forming cone is drawn from the pool in each tip. The cones are located in the tips, each cone is smaller than the surrounding tip and each cone is stabilized on the interior tip wall by an annular glass portion integral with the cone. The process is dripless, since upon fiber interruption at any given tip, the molten glass pool remains in the tip.</p> |