Glass melt stability

Abstract

The employment of sensors during glass melting represents a major prerequisite for an improved process control leading to higher production yields. In situ sensoring techniques can be divided into two groups: on the one hand, techniques which extract information of glass melt properties, e.g., oxidation state and concentrations of relevant polyvalent species (such as iron, sulfur, chromium) and on the other hand, techniques which monitor the furnace atmosphere with respect to toxic emissions (e.g., SO2, NO x) and combustion species (e.g., CO, CO2, H2O). Nowadays it is feasible not only to install early warning systems indicating deviations from target glass properties, but also to implement process control systems which enforce a stable and reproducible glass melting. Examples are given for the redox control of green glass melting utilizing high portions of recycled cullet and the redox control of amber glass melting. © 2010 Springer-Verlag US.