Patent Application
20240010540
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a glass article and a method of manufacturing a glass article, and more particularly, to a technology for performing a predetermined treatment such as homogenization on molten glass during (in a middle of) a process from a molten glass producing step to a forming step.
As is commonly known, when molten glass is conveyed from a melting furnace to a forming device, the molten glass supplied to the forming device is stirred in a stirring device provided on a conveyance path. The stirring device has such a configuration that a stirrer having stirring blades provided thereto is disposed in a stirring tank having a cylindrical shape. After the molten glass is caused to flow into the stirring tank, the stirrer is rotated about a predetermined shaft to give flow in a circumferential direction to the molten glass that has flowed into the stirring tank, allowing the molten glass to be stirred.
Meanwhile, when this kind of stirring device is used to homogenize the molten glass, not only part of the molten glass flowing in the vicinity of a center of the stirring tank (vicinity of center of rotation of the stirrer) but also part of the molten glass flowing in a radially outer part (along an inner wall) of the stirring tank are required to be sufficiently stirred. The part of molten glass flowing in the vicinity of the center of the stirring tank can relatively easily be stirred by the stirrer. However, the part of molten glass flowing along the inner wall passes and flows through a gap, which is inevitably defined between the stirring blades of the stirrer and the inner wall. Thus, various kinds of measures for effectively stirring the molten glass flowing along the inner wall have been proposed.
For example, in Patent Literature 1, it is described that a gap between radially outermost portions of the stirring blades and the inner wall of the stirring tank is set to be small, specifically, a turning diameter of each of the stirring blades is set to about 91% of an inner diameter dimension of the inner wall, to thereby reduce the amount of molten glass that flows to a downstream side without being brought into contact with the stirring blades.
Further, in Patent Literature 2, it is proposed that an outer diameter dimension of the stirrer is set to 0.85 times or more, preferably, 0.9 times or more of an inner diameter dimension of the stirring tank to prevent passage of the molten glass in the vicinity of an inner wall surface of a conveyance tube (stirring tank) for the molten glass.
As described above, the stirring device of the related art is intended to improve stirring efficiency and, in turn, improve homogenization by controlling a radial gap between the stirrer (stirring blades) and the stirring tank. Incidentally, supposing use under a high-temperature environment, the stirring device generally has a structure in which a periphery of the stirring tank is covered with a refractory and in which the stirring tank and the refractory are accommodated in a casing. When the stirring device has the structure described above, however, the casing is sometimes deformed due to various factors such as an increase in size of the casing when the stirring device is installed or in use. At the time of installation or use, the casing is mounted onto a floor surface. Meanwhile, the stirrer and a device (motor) that rotationally drives the stirrer are mounted to a predetermined member at a position above and away from the floor surface. Thus, when the casing is deformed as described above, the stirring tank in a state of being held in the casing is inclined along with the deformation of the casing. Meanwhile, the stirrer in a state of being mounted at the position above and away from the floor surface maintains a posture taken before the casing is deformed. As a result, there is a higher risk in that a gap between a radially outermost portion of the stirrer (radially outermost portions of the stirring blades) and the inner surface of the stirring tank may greatly vary. Thus, it is difficult to stably perform a satisfactory stirring treatment, and in turn, a homogenization treatment with excellent quality.
The above-mentioned problem may occur not only in the stirring treatment (homogenization treatment) but also in another step of performing a predetermined treatment on the molten glass inside a treatment tank, for example, a flow rate adjustment step.
In view of the circumstances described above, a technical object of this specification is to provide an apparatus for manufacturing a glass article and a method of manufacturing a glass article, which prevent inclination of a treatment tank as much as possible and enable a satisfactory treatment to be stably performed on molten glass.
The above-mentioned object is achieved with an apparatus for manufacturing a glass article according to one aspect of the present invention. That is, there is provided an apparatus for manufacturing a glass article, comprising: a glass melting furnace configured to produce molten glass; a treatment device configured to perform a predetermined treatment on the produced molten glass; and a forming device configured to form the molten glass into a predetermined shape that has been subjected to the predetermined treatment, wherein the treatment device comprises: a treatment tank to be supplied with the molten glass; and a casing configured to hold the treatment tank, and wherein the casing is supported in a suspended manner.
As described above, in the apparatus for manufacturing a glass article according to one aspect of the present invention, when the treatment device comprises the casing configured to hold the treatment tank for the molten glass, the casing is supported in a suspended manner. When the casing of the treatment device is supported in a suspended manner as described above, a force of restoring an original shape of the casing (shape of the casing given before assembly) acts on the casing under its own weight. Thus, even if the casing is deformed at a time of installation work or when the treatment device is in use, the force of restoring the shape given before the deformation acts on the casing, allowing the shape of the casing to return to or become closer to the shape given before the deformation. Further, when the casing has the same shape as that given before assembly at the beginning of the support in a suspended manner, this shape is maintained under the own weight. As described above, according to the manufacturing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention, inclination of the treatment tank, which may be caused at the time of installation of the treatment device or when the treatment device is in use, is prevented as much as possible, enabling prevention of a reduction in treatment efficiency or treatment ability, which may be caused due to the inclination. In other words, a satisfactory treatment can be stably performed on the molten glass.
Further, in the apparatus for manufacturing a glass article according to one aspect of the present invention, the casing may have a rectangular shape in plan view, and the casing may have a vertical cross section with a shape symmetric with respect to a vertical line passing through a center in a transverse direction of the vertical cross section. The “transverse direction” as used herein means, when the casing has a rectangular shape in plan view, a direction extending along sides being short sides of the casing. Similarly, a “longitudinal direction” as used herein means a direction extending along other sides being long sides of the casing.
When the shape of the casing is set as described above, a center of gravity of the casing can be set on the vertical line passing through the center in the transverse direction of the casing in design. Thus, when the casing has a designed shape at the beginning of the installation (support in a suspended manner), this state is maintained even when the treatment device is in use. When a center line of the casing, which passes through the center in the transverse direction on the vertical cross section of the casing, is inclined with respect to the vertical line at the time of installation, the own weight acts on the casing in such a direction as to match the center line with the vertical line. Thus, the casing always maintains the designed shape regardless of a state at the time of installation, enabling more reliable prevention of the inclination of the treatment tank.
Further, in the apparatus for manufacturing a glass article according to one aspect of the present invention, the casing may comprise a bottom portion and a pair of side wall portions being upright with respect to the bottom portion, and an inner surface of each of the side wall portions may have a perpendicularity equal to or smaller than 0.001 with respect to an upper surface of the bottom portion. The “perpendicularity” as used herein means, when a height dimension of each of the side wall portions is represented by 1, a distance between two ideal planes between which the inner surface of the side wall portion can be located. The perpendicularity is expressed in a dimensionless unit. Further, the “ideal plane” herein means an imaginary plane perpendicular to the upper surface of the bottom portion. When the perpendicularity is defined as described above, the perpendicularity of, for example, 0.001 means that, when the height dimension of each of the side wall portions is represented by 1, the inner surface of the side wall portion is located between the two ideal planes being apart from each other by 0.001. As a matter of course, when a parallelism between the inner surface and an outer surface of each of the side wall portions is extremely high, the “inner surface” of the side wall portion may be replaced by the “outer surface” of the side wall portion in the above-mentioned definition of the perpendicularity. Similarly, when a parallelism between the upper surface and a bottom surface (lower surface) of the bottom portion is extremely high, the “upper surface” of the bottom portion may be replaced by the “bottom surface (lower surface)” of the bottom portion in the above-mentioned definition of the perpendicularity.
As described above, when the casing has the bottom portion and one pair of side wall portions being upright with respect to the bottom portion, for example, the casing has a cuboidal shape, a sufficient shape restoring effect or shape maintaining effect achieved by support in a suspended manner can be enjoyed by determining the perpendicularity of the inner surface of each of the side wall portions with respect to the upper surface of the bottom portion as described above.
Further, as described above, the apparatus for manufacturing a glass article according to one aspect of the present invention prevents inclination of the treatment tank as much as possible so that a satisfactory treatment can be stably performed on the molten glass. Thus, it is preferred that the present invention be applied when, for example, the treatment tank is a stirring tank, a stirrer is accommodated in the stirring tank, and the molten glass supplied to the stirring tank is stirred through rotation of the stirrer, specifically, a treatment device is a stirring device.
Further, the object can also be achieved with a method of manufacturing a glass article according to one aspect of the present invention. That is, there is provided a method of manufacturing a glass article, comprising: a molten glass producing step of producing molten glass; a treatment step of performing a predetermined treatment on the produced molten glass; and a forming step of forming the molten glass into a predetermined shape that has been subjected to the predetermined treatment, wherein the treatment step comprises: a preparation step of preparing a treatment device comprising a treatment tank to be supplied with the molten glass and a casing configured to hold the treatment tank; and a treatment performing step of performing the predetermined treatment on the molten glass with use of the prepared treatment device, and wherein, in the preparation step, the casing configured to hold the treatment tank is supported in a suspended manner.
As described above, in the method of manufacturing a glass article according to one aspect of the present invention, when the treatment device comprises the casing configured to hold the treatment tank for the molten glass, in the preparation step for the treatment device, the casing is supported in a suspended manner. When the casing of the treatment device is supported as described above, a force of restoring a shape of the casing given before assembly acts on the casing under its own weight. Thus, even if the casing is deformed when the treatment device is installed or in use, the force of restoring the shape of the casing given before assembly acts on the casing, allowing the shape of the casing to return to or become closer to the shape given before deformation. Further, when the casing has the same shape as that given before assembly at the beginning of the support in a suspended manner, this shape is maintained under the own weight. As described above, according to the method of manufacturing a glass article according to one aspect of the present invention, inclination of the treatment tank, which may be caused when the treatment device is in use, is prevented as much as possible. As a result, a satisfactory treatment can be stably performed on the molten glass.
Further, in the method of manufacturing a glass article according to one aspect of the present invention, the casing may comprise a bottom portion and a pair of side wall portions being upright with respect to the bottom portion, and, in the preparation step, a perpendicularity of an inner surface of each of the side wall portions with respect to the upper surface of the bottom portion of the casing may be adjusted before the casing is supported in a suspended manner.
As described above, when the perpendicularity of each of the inner surfaces of the side wall portions with respect to the upper surface of the bottom portion of the casing is adjusted before the casing is supported in a suspended manner, the perpendicularity can be adjusted before the casing is subjected to assembly. Without the treatment tank or the refractory, the perpendicularity can be measured on an inner side of the casing under a state in which, for example, an outer side of the casing is held by a predetermined jig. Thus, the measurement of the perpendicularity and correction of the casing can easily be carried out repeatedly. Thus, the perpendicularity can extremely easily be adjusted.
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent inclination of the treatment tank as much as possible and enable a satisfactory treatment to be stably performed on the molten glass.
Now, one embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to
As illustrated in
The homogenizer 6 is a device configured to stir and mix the molten glass that has flowed out from the fining device 3 to achieve homogenization. The homogenizer 6 comprises a first stirring device 8 and a second stirring device 9. The first stirring device 8 is connected to the fining device 3 via a first supply pipe 7a. The second stirring device 9 is connected to the first stirring device 8 via a second supply pipe 7b. The second stirring device 9 is connected to the viscosity adjusting device 4 via a third supply pipe 7c.
The forming device 5 is configured to continuously form a glass ribbon of the molten glass, which serves as a base for glass sheets. For example, a forming device using a float method, a forming device using a roll-out method, a forming device using an overflow down-draw method, or a forming device using a slot down-draw method is used. The forming device 5 may form a glass article other than a glass sheet. As an example, the forming device 5 may continuously form glass tubes or glass rods of the molten glass by a Danner method.
When a glass sheet is manufactured as a glass article with use of the apparatus 1 for manufacturing a glass article, which has the configuration described above, a procedure illustrated in
Next, details of the homogenizer 6 are described.
Among the above-mentioned components, the first stirring device 8 comprises a first stirring tank 13, and a first stirrer 14 that is accommodated in the first stirring tank 13. The first stirring tank 13 corresponds to a treatment tank according to the present invention. A second stirring tank 15 described later also corresponds to a treatment tank according to the present invention.
The first stirring tank 13 comprises a bottomed cylindrical portion 13a and an upper lid portion 13b. The upper lid portion 13b closes an upper opening of the bottomed cylindrical portion 13a. The bottomed cylindrical portion 13a has an upstream end (upper side in
Further, the first stirrer 14 comprises a shaft 14a and a plurality of stirring blades 14b. The plurality of stirring blades 14b are mounted to the shaft 14a along a longitudinal direction of the shaft 14a. The first stirrer 14 is configured to turn the plurality of stirring blades 14b about the shaft 14a along with rotation of the shaft 14a so as to be able to stir the molten glass in the first stirring tank 13. In this embodiment, a first motor 14c functioning as a drive device is connected to an upper end of the shaft 14a. The shaft 14a rotates in a predetermined direction along with driving of the motor 14c. At this time, the first stirrer 14 is designed so that its center of rotation matches a center line of the first stirring tank 13, more specifically, a center line of an inner peripheral surface of the bottomed cylindrical portion 13a. In this case, four stirring blades 14b are mounted to the shaft 14a. However, the number of stirring blades 14b may be suitably increased or decreased. Further, the stirring blades 14b may each have any suitable shape or may have any suitable arrangement as long as the stirring blades 14b can cause a stirring action on the molten glass. Stirring blades 16b described later may also have any suitable shape, number, and arrangement.
Further, the second stirring device 9 comprises the second stirring tank 15, and a second stirrer 16 that is accommodated in the second stirring tank 15.
The second stirring tank 15 comprises a bottomed cylindrical portion 15a and an upper lid portion 15b. The upper lid portion 15b closes an upper opening of the bottomed cylindrical portion 15a. The bottomed cylindrical portion 15a has an upstream end (upper side in
Further, the second stirrer 16 comprises a shaft 16a and a plurality of stirring blades 16b. The plurality of stirring blades 16b are mounted to the shaft 16a along a longitudinal direction of the shaft 16a. The stirrer 16 is configured to turn the plurality of stirring blades 16b about the shaft 16a along with rotation of the shaft 16a so as to be able to stir the molten glass in the second stirring tank 15. In this embodiment, a second motor 16c functioning as a drive device is connected to an upper end of the shaft 16a. The shaft 16a rotates in a predetermined direction along with driving of the motor 16c. At this time, the second stirrer 16 is designed so that its center of rotation matches a center line of an inner peripheral surface of the bottomed cylindrical portion 15a of the second stirring tank 15.
The first stirring device 8 and the second stirring device 9 having the configurations described above are connected to each other in series via the second supply pipe 7b in a state of being accommodated in the casing 12. Thus, the molten glass, which has been supplied to the homogenizer 6 via the first supply pipe 7a, is stirred and mixed by the first stirring device 8 and the second stirring device 9 in the stated order from an upstream side.
The refractory 11 may be made of a suitable refractory material, for example, a publicly-known refractory material including an electroforming refractory such as a high zirconia refractory, an AZS refractory, and an alumina refractory, and a burned refractory material such as a zircon refractory, an AZS refractory, an alumina refractory, a mullite refractory, and silica refractory. The high zirconia refractory contains ZrO2 at 80% to 100% in percent by mass. The refractory material is not limited to those in a solid state. For example, an unshaped refractory material having flowability may be placed as part of the refractory 11. The unshaped refractory material may be arranged in a space between a shaped refractory material and the stirring devices 8 and 9 and a space between the shaped refractory material and the supply pipes 7a, 7b, and 7c or a space between the casing 12 and the stirring devices 8 and 9 and a space between the casing 12 and each of the supply pipes 7a, 7b, and 7c.
The casing 12 comprises, for example, as illustrated in
Further, in this embodiment, as illustrated in
Further, in this embodiment, as illustrated in
Further, the upper lid portion 22 of the casing 12 comprises fitting holes 22a fittable to the stirring tanks 13 and 15, respectively. The fitting holes 22a allow mounting of the upper lid portion 22 after the refractory 11 and the stirring tanks 13 and 15 are accommodated in the casing 12. Although not shown, the upper lid portion 22 may have cutouts larger than the stirring tanks 13 and 15 in place of the fitting holes 22a. In this case, the stirring tanks 13 and 15 are fixed to the upper lid portion 22 with use of suitable fixtures.
Further, when the casing 12 has a rectangular shape in plan view (
The casing 12 having the above-mentioned configuration, in other words, the homogenizer 6 comprising the casing 12 having the above-mentioned configuration is supported by a suspension and support device 23 in a suspended manner. The suspension and support device 23 supports an upper part of the casing 12 to support the casing 12 in a suspended manner. In this embodiment, as illustrated in
Further, in this embodiment, the suspension and support device 23 further comprises posture adjusting portions 26 configured to adjust a posture of the casing 12 when the casing 12 is supported in a suspended manner. Each of the posture adjusting portions 26 comprises, for example, as illustrated in
Next, details of the homogenization step S3 carried out with use of the homogenizer 6 having the above-mentioned configuration are described.
As illustrated in
(S31) Preparation Step
(S311) Perpendicularity Adjustment Step
In the perpendicularity adjustment step S311, before the homogenizer 6 comprising the casing 12 is supported in a suspended manner, a perpendicularity of an inner surface 20c of each of the first side wall portions 20 with respect to an upper surface 19b of the bottom portion 19 of the casing 12 is adjusted. In this embodiment, as illustrated in
Further, in this embodiment, the fastening jig 29 further comprises tensile-force applying portions. Each of the tensile-force applying portions comprises a drawing thread portion 34 and the female thread portion 20b. The drawing thread portion 34 is provided to the fastening jig 29 so as to be opposed to the outer surface of the first side wall portion 20. The female thread portions 20b are formed in the first side wall portions 20, and are threadably engageable with the drawing thread portions 34, respectively. In this case, the drawing thread portions 34 are threadably engaged with the female thread portions 20b via through holes 35, each having a cylindrical shape, formed in the fastening jig 29.
The perpendicularity of the casing 12 is adjusted with use of the fastening jig 29 having the above-mentioned configuration. More specifically, as illustrated in
The perpendicularity is adjusted under the above-mentioned state. More specifically, first, a levelness of the upper surface 19b of the bottom portion 19 is measured with use of a levelness measurement device. At this time, the levelness is measured by bringing the levelness measurement device closer to the upper surface 19b from an inside of the casing 12. Then, for example, in the case illustrated in
Under a state in which the levelness of the upper surface 19b of the bottom portion 19 has been increased to have predetermined accuracy, a perpendicularity of each of the inner surfaces 20c of the first side wall portions 20 with respect to the upper surface 19b of the bottom portion 19 is adjusted. More specifically, a perpendicularity measurement device is brought closer to the upper surface 19b of the bottom portion 19 and the inner surfaces 20c of the first side wall portions 20 from the inside of the casing 12 to measure the perpendicularity of each of the inner surfaces 20c with respect to the upper surface 19b. Then, for example, in the case illustrated in
A target perpendicularity at this time is, for example, 0.001 or less. When a height dimension (vertical dimension) of each of the first side wall portions 20 is 1,000 mm, the inner surface 20c of each of the first side wall portions 20 is located between two ideal planes that are parallel and apart from each other by 1.0 mm. The perpendicularity is preferably 0.0005 or smaller. When the height dimension of each of the first side wall portions 20 is 1,000 mm, the inner surface 20c of each of the first side wall portions 20 is located between two ideal planes that are apart from each other by 0.5 mm. A suitable device may be used as the perpendicularity measurement device. For example, a noncontact-type perpendicularity measurement device using a laser or a contact-type perpendicularity measurement device using a contactor may be used.
(S312) Assembly Step
After the perpendicularity of the casing 12 is adjusted as described above, the homogenizer 6 comprising the casing 12 is assembled. More specifically, first, the refractory 11 is laid on the upper surface 19b of the bottom portion 19. Then, the first stirring tank 13 and the second stirring tank 15 are arranged at predetermined positions in the longitudinal direction. The stirring tanks 13 and 15 are vertically positioned by using outer peripheral surfaces of the stirring tanks 13 and 15 as references. At this time, a perpendicularity of each of the outer peripheral surfaces with respect to the upper surface 19b of the bottom portion 19 may be adjusted, or a parallelism of each of the outer peripheral surfaces with respect to the inner surface 20c of the first side wall portion 20 may be adjusted. After that, a space around the stirring tanks 13 and 15 is filled with the refractory 11, and the upper lid portion 22 of the casing 12 is mounted. As a result, the first side wall portions 20 that are located on both sides of the casing 12 in the transverse direction are coupled to each other with the upper lid portion 22. At the same time, upper parts of the stirring tanks 13 and 15 are fitted into the fitting holes 22a of the upper lid portion 22. In this manner, the stirring tanks 13 and 15 are fixed to the casing 12. The assembly of most part of the homogenizer 6 is completed in the above-mentioned manner (see
(S313) Installation Step After the upper lid portion 22 is mounted as described above, the fastening of the casing 12 with the fastening jig 29 is released to demount the fastening jig 29 from the casing 12. After that, the homogenizer 6 is moved to a predetermined position (installation position) in the apparatus 1 for manufacturing a glass article, and is mounted to the suspension and support device 23. More specifically, the homogenizer 6 is installed under a state in which the casing 12 is supported in a suspended manner by fixing the upper lid portion 22 of the casing 12 to the beam portions 25 of the suspension and support device 23. Finally, the first stirrer 14 and the second stirrer 16, to which the upper lid portions 13b and 15b of the stirring tanks 13 and 15 have been mounted, respectively, are inserted into corresponding stirring tanks 13 and 15 to fix the motors 14c and 16c in predetermined positions. As a result, the installation of the homogenizer 6 is completed (state illustrated in
As described above, with the apparatus 1 for manufacturing a glass article or the method of manufacturing a glass article according to the present invention, the casing 12 configured to hold the stirring tanks 13 and 15 is supported in a suspended manner. When the casing 12 is supported as described above, a force for restoring an original shape of the casing 12 (shape of the casing 12 given before assembly) acts on the casing 12 under its own weight. Thus, even if the casing 12 is deformed at a time when the homogenizer 6 is installed or in use, the force for restoring the shape of the casing 12 given before the casing 12 is deformed acts on the casing 12, allowing the shape of the casing 12 to return to or become closer to the shape given before the deformation. Further, when the casing 12 has the same shape as that of the casing 12 given before assembly at the beginning of the support in a suspended manner, the shape is maintained under the own weight. As described above, according to the apparatus 1 for manufacturing a glass article or the method of manufacturing a glass article according to the present invention, inclination of the stirring tanks 13 and 15, which may be caused when the homogenizer 6 is installed or in use, is prevented as much as possible, thereby enabling prevention of a decrease in stirring efficiency (homogenization efficiency) or stirring capability (homogenization capability), which may be caused due to the inclination. In other words, a satisfactory homogenization treatment on the molten glass can be stably performed.
Further, in this embodiment, the casing 12 has a rectangular shape in plan view (see
Further, in this embodiment, before the casing 12 is supported in a suspended manner, the perpendicularity of each of the inner surfaces 20c of the first side wall portions 20 with respect to the upper surface 19b of the bottom portion 19 of the casing 12 is adjusted. Thus, the perpendicularity of the casing 12 can be adjusted before the casing 12 is subjected to the assembly. Without the stirring tanks 13 and 15 or the refractory 11, the perpendicularity can be measured inside the casing 12 under a state in which the outer side of the casing 12 is held (fastened) by the predetermined fastening jig 29, as illustrated in
When the casing 12 has a rectangular shape in plan view as in this embodiment, deformation of the casing 12 in the longitudinal direction can be prevented. Thus, it is only required to adjust the perpendicularity of each of the first side wall portions 20 located on both sides in the transverse direction with respect to the bottom portion 19, contributing to a reduction in the number of steps.
The one embodiment of the present invention has been described above. However, the apparatus for manufacturing a glass article and the method of manufacturing a glass article according to the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and various modes may be adopted within the scope of the present invention.
For example, regarding a mode in which the casing 12 is supported in a suspended manner, the casing 12 is supported in a suspended manner by fixing the upper lid portion 22 of the casing 12 to the beam portions 25 of the suspension and support device 23 in the embodiment. However, as a matter of course, the mode in which the casing 12 is supported in a suspended manner is not limited to the above-mentioned mode. For example, although not shown, the casing 12 may be supported in a suspended manner by fixing upper ends of the first side wall portions 20 or the second side wall portions 21 to the beam portions 25 through coupling members. Alternatively, the casing 12 may be supported in a suspended manner by fixing the stirring tanks 13 and 15 and the casing 12 to each other and upper ends of the stirring tanks 13 and 15 to the beam portions 25. In short, the casing 12 may be supported in a suspended manner by fixing any suitable member fixable to the casing 12 to the beam portions 25.
Further, in this embodiment, it has been exemplified a case in which the casing 12 is supported in a suspended manner by fixing the beam portions 25 to the casing 12. However, as a matter of course, the configuration of the suspension and support device 23 is not limited thereto. The suspension and support device 23 may have any suitable configuration as long as the suspension and support device 23 is formed so as to be able to couple the base portions 24 fixed onto the floor surface 28a and the casing 12 (or components of the homogenizer 6 fixed to the casing 12) to each other.
Further, regarding the perpendicularity adjustment step S311, the first and second pressing portions comprising the male thread portions 30 and 32 and the female thread portions 31 and 33 have been exemplified as the first and second pressing portions provided to the fastening jig 29. However, the pressing portions are not limited to those described above. Each of the pressing portions may have any suitable configuration as long as the pressing portion can inwardly press the first side wall portion 20 toward the center in the transverse direction or vertically upwardly press the bottom portion 19. Further, each of the tensile-force applying portions is not limited to the illustrated mode (drawing thread portion 34 and female thread portion 20b), and may have any suitable configuration. As a matter of course, the positions and the number of the pressing portions or those of the tensile-force applying portions may be suitably set, and are not limited to those in the illustrated mode.
Still further, the application of the present invention to the homogenization step S3 for achieving homogenization by stirring the molten glass and the casing 12 of the homogenizer 6 used in this step S3 has been described. However, as a matter of course, the present invention is also applicable to equipment relating to the steps other than the homogenization step S3. For example, although not shown, the present invention may be applied to a flow rate adjustment step and a flow rate adjustment tank used in this step. In the flow rate adjustment step, a flow rate of the molten glass is adjusted by raising and lowering a needle inside a treatment tank to change a sectional area of an outflow port formed in a lower end. Further, the application of the present invention is not limited to the treatment steps exemplified above. The present invention may be applied to all treatment steps to be carried out with use of a treatment device comprising an operating member, which is provided inside a treatment tank and operates for the treatment tank.
Still further, the application of the present invention to the apparatus for and the method of manufacturing a glass sheet as a glass article has been exemplified. However, as a matter of course, the present invention may be applied to an apparatus or a method of manufacturing a glass article other than a glass sheet, for example, other kinds of glass articles such as a tube glass or glass fiber.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-191177 | Oct 2019 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2020/027681 | 7/16/2020 | WO |
