Apparatus for the Preparation of Glass for Forming

Abstract

The withdrawal of a certain amount of glass from a pot or tank is aimed at supplying the exact amount corresponding to the weight of the object to be formed in the machine. The following discussion is limited to the supply for hollow ware and bottles from tanks. Analogous procedures would be valid for pots. At the present time glass is withdrawn according to three methods:

• (a) by wrapping viscous glass on a gathering iron and transporting it manually to the forming machine. The gathering iron is held over the parison (blank) mold in a way to allow a gob of the desired size and shape to drop into the mold. By means of shears the gob is separated from the gathering iron.

• (b) Through an opening in the bottom of a forehearth, a canal or a trough, a measured amount of glass is pushed out of the bath by a reciprocating plunger and cut. The drop (gob) falls under gravity into the mold which is located directly underneath.

• (c) The parison mold of the machine dips into the fluid glass of the revolving pot in the forehearth, fixed to the working end of the tank, and the glass is sucked in by evacuation from above.