GB1060234A - Method and apparatus for manufacturing glass beads - Google Patents

Abstract

<PICT:1060234/C1/1> Apparatus for producing small glass beads comprises a combustion chamber 44 for the production of hot gases, a constricted outlet blast passage 46 from the combustion chamber opening into an expansion chamber 10 and a pipe 62 for introducing a stream of molten glass into the outlet passage 46, the pipe 62 projecting into the passage 46 to prevent solidification of glass at the end of the pipe. The pipe 62 is preferably of platinum or an alloy thereof. The finely divided streams of glass produced by the blast are broken up by the turbulence due to expansion in the chamber 10 to form small beads, the glass being held at an elevated temperature by the blast and by a plurality of secondary burners 24 surrounding the main burner 32. The glass beads cool as they cross the chamber 10 and fall to the bottom where the solidified beads are collected, the exhaust gases being removed through a stack 18. In a modification, Fig. 5 (not shown), the molten glass pipe 62 is vertically arranged on the outer part of the passage 46 and a deflector 88 flares outwardly in the upper half of the passage 46. A vertically arranged apparatus is also described in Fig. 4 (not shown). The size of the beads can be varied by varying viscosity, the diameter of the exit orifice and the velocity and temperature of the heated gases.