| 摘要 |
PURPOSE:To improve the quality of a glass article by reducing the content of bubbles therein by utilizing numerous solid pieces having minute sizes in the treatment of molten glass by the bubbler method. CONSTITUTION:An ejecting port 3a of gas is provided to a top end of a bubbler tube 3 extending upwards in the molten glass 2 after penetrating decking tiles at the bottom of a glass melting tank. A mixture 5 of solid and gas contg. previously suspended fine glass pieces having a same compsn. as the glass 2 is fed to the bubbler tube 3 through a feeding pipe, and the mixture is ejected into the glass 2 through the ejecting port 3a. Thus, a gas foam 6 is formed at a tip end of the bubbler tube 3. Fine glass pieces 7 are supplied to the inside of the gas foam 6. The fine glass pieces are blown by the stream of the gas expressed by an arrow mark (a) to the top area of the inside of the gas foam 6, and melted by the heat supplied from the glass 2 and stick to the inside surface of the foam 6, forming thus many fine unevennesses 9 around the glass pieces 7 as nuclei on the inside surface of the foam 6. Such foams 6 grow increasingly, rise upward in the glass 2 after separating from the bubbler tube 3, and stir the glass 2. In this stage, the gas dissolved in the glass 2 is liberated by diffusion through the large surface area at the interface of the foams. |
