Cooling Tubes for Glass Filament Production Apparatus

This invention relates to glass handling apparatus and more particularly to cooling tubes for use with a glass filament forming apparatus.

In one well known method and apparatus of making fibers from a molten inorganic material, such as glass, a plurality of small orifice tips or nozzles are formed in the base of a molten glass chamber or bushing. The molten material flows from the bushing out of the orifice tips forming cones at the end of the tips. When the temperature of the molten material at these cones is properly controlled, continuous fibers or filaments can be drawn from the tips of the cones.

Cooling means are commonly utilized for controlling the temperature of the cones in order to effectively and accurately regulate the transition of the molten glass viscosity. One prior art manner of controlling the temperature of the cones is to place a tube adjacent to the cones and to cause a cooling medium such as water to flow through the tube at a rate necessary to maintain a desired cone temperature.

Conventional cooling means which have heretofore been utilized proximate the area of the fluid glass stream as it emerges from the orifices include either tubes carrying water or other liquid coolants and/or solid metal bars positioned transverse to the length of the bushing. The tubes or bars have traditionally been composed of noble or similar exotic metals or alloys thereof. These materials effectively endure the high temperatures and corrosive vapors encountered proximate the bushing. As is well known, the environment around the cooling tubes including the area around the cooling tube supports is harsh in terms of high temperature, corrosiveness caused by the temperature, volatiles from the molten material and water spray typically used around the bushing. In addition, the interior of the tube is exposed to superheated steam when the water flow rate therethrough is inadequate. At times, depending on the material used, this harsh environment deteriorates the cooling tubes or bars requiring one or more to be replaced at more or less periodic time intervals.

Previously the materials used include platinum, gold, silver, palladium, and the like. However, the costs of such materials are exorbitant for extensive factory operations.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an economical and effective cooling means for use with a glass filament forming apparatus.

Another object of the instant invention is the provision of relatively inexpensive and long lasting cooling means useful in the making of continous glass filaments.

A further object of the invention is the provision of coated or clad cooling means in which a noble metal is coated on a less expensive substrate.

These and other objects are attained in a glass filament forming apparatus by the present invention in which cooling tubes and/or bars are provided which comprise a base metal clad with a noncorrosive metal such as the precious or noble metals. The base metals may be selected from the group consisting essentially of copper, and refractory metals including nickel, Inconel, molybdenum, and alloys thereof. Additionally, the precious metal may be selected from the group consisting essentially of platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, gold, silver or alloys thereof.

FIG. 1 is a partial perspective view of a conventional fiberizing bushing assembly utilizing an example of the cooling means of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of one of the cooling tubes of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the cooling tube of the present invention as seen in FIG. 2.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a conventional resistance heated fiberizing bushing assembly 10 utilizing the cooling means of the present invention is shown. The bushing assembly 10 includes bushing supports 12 located at each end of the bushing and is provided with two frame end walls 14, each containing a lug 16 for attaching electrical leads (not shown). Frame sidewalls 18, and a bushing plate 20 complete the construction of the bushing assembly. The bushing plate 20 contains a plurality of tips or nozzles 22, extending below the plate 20.

A plurality of cooling means 24 are spaced along the width of the bushing plate 20 in such a manner that a cooling means 24 is juxtaposed between two rows of tips with one row on each side of a cooling mean 24. In the present example the cooling means are shown as cooling tubes 24 although in practice the cooling means 24 could be constructed as solid cooling bars joined to heat sinks such as a water cooled tube (not shown) and could be located across the bushing instead of along the bushing as shown for the cooling tube 24 in FIG. 1. The alignment and spacing of each cooling tube 24 with respect to the tips 22 adjacent to the cooling tube is important and is maintained with alignment members 26. The members 26 have slots or notches at proper intervals across their length into which the cooling tubes 24 are fitted. The notches in the various alignment members 26 are aligned ensuring that the cooling tubes 24 are likewise aligned.

The cooling tubes 24 are held in the notches of the alignment members 26 by a plurality of cooling tube supports 28 which in turn are fixed by a plurality of bolts 30, washers 32, 34 and upper and lower flange nuts 36 and 38, respectively. Particularly the washer 32 is and preferably both the washers 32 and 34 are attached to the nuts 36 and 38 in any suitable manner, as for example by brazing, pins, etc. This prevents the washers from causing problems when an operator is changing the cooling tubes.

The cooling tubes 24 are maintained at the proper position below the tip plate 22 by adjusting the upper nuts 36 to the correct position and subsequently raising the support members 28 to a snug position against the upper washers 32 by the use of the lower washers 34 and the lower nuts 38.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the support members 28 comprise two bars 40 and 42 held in a spaced apart position by two pins 44 and 46. For reasons of economy, conventional groove or spring pins are preferred. The ends of these pins are smaller in diameter than the central portion, thus forming a shoulder that butts against the inside surfaces of the bars 40 and 42 and maintains the desired spacing between the bars. The ends of the pins 44 and 46 which have a smaller diameter fit tightly into holes drilled into the bars 40 and 42. By selecting a pin material having a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than the bars, such as stainless steel pins and molybdenum alloy bars, the fit becomes even tighter when the support is exposed to elevated service temperatures.

As shown in FIG. 1, the cooling tubes 24 are usually bent downward on at least one end to facilitate their connection to lines bringing cooling fluid, usually water, to the cooling tubes. The opposite ends of the cooling tubes are frequently open. Water flowing freely from the open ends into a catch basin readily indicates that the tubes are not plugged.

According to the present invention more practical and inexpensive cooling tubes for the foregoing application and system are produced by coating or cladding a base metal such as copper and refractory metals including nickel, Inconel, molybdenum and alloys thereof with a noble or precious metal such as platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, gold, silver or alloys thereof. The use of the base metals allow the reduction of the unit cost of the cooling tubes while the coatings of the noble metals on the relatively inexpensive substrates prevents the rapid corrosion and deterioration of the cooling tubes in the very aggresive ambient conditions of high temperature combined with the corrosive vapors encountered proximate the glass filament bushing. The use of nickel as the base metal is preferred because it provides a good bond with all of the mentioned precious metals and it resists internal corrosion from occasional exposure to superheated steam. The selection of the precious metal is based in part on the relative costs of the metals which change daily on the commodity markets. The clad cooling tubes may be made by any conventional cladding method and have been found to perform satisfactorily in the working environment. Because of the strength with which platinum bonds to nickel, this is the preferred embodiment.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show a cooling tube 24 of the present invention in which a substrate tube 48, made of one of the base metals referenced above, is coated or clad with a precious metal 50, of the types mentioned earlier. A fin 52 may be suitably affixed to the tube 24 in order to increase the strength and thermal performance of the tube. In the embodiment shown, the fin may be made of solid precious metal such as platinum, although it is possible to clad a base metal such as nickel with a precious metal such as platinum and then braze or otherwise suitably attach the clad fin to the clad cooling tube. The precious metal which makes up the fin need not be the same one used in the cladding layer. While FIG. 2 indicates that the cross section of the tube 24 is oval, the tube could be provided with any cross section including a circular cross section. Additionally and also optionally, the tube 24 could be provided with one or more solid or clad fins which are disposed at appropriate locations about the periphery of the tube. The fin 52 extends along the tube 24 in the region beneath the nozzles 22, being interrupted to allow tube 24 to be engaged by notched alignment members 26.

To provide adequate physical integrity which allows the cooling tubes to endure the aggresive and rigorous conditions encountered proximate the bushing commensurate with the most effective cooling through heat exchange and removal, the thickness of the base metal in the tube walls should be of a thickness of at least 0.010 inches. Efforts to further strengthen the tube walls in order to resist corrosion by superheated steam, established the upper limit of the thickess range for the base metal to be 0.040 inches. When the thickness of the base metal was increased beyond this point, even to 0.045 inches, difficulties were encountered in shaping the tubes and, in addition, the cladding layer tended to pull free, to stretch and become porous. Therefore, the base metal should have a wall thickness in the range from 0.010 to approximately 0.040 inches, preferably about 0.030 to 0.040 inches. The cladding layer of precious metal should have a secondary wall thickness from about 0.004 to approximately 0.008 inches, preferably 0.005 to 0.007 inches. A minimum wall thickness of 0.004 inches is necessary to insure a non-porous coating.

Cooling tubes of the construction of this invention in service with a conventional glass forming apparatus should effectively resist the harsh environmental conditions encountered therein, in particular the very high temperatures and corrosive vapors of the glass melt over a prolonged period of 24 months of continuous or intermittent production. Prior cooling tubes using noble or exotic type metals such as platinum-palladium alloy tubes and platinum-rhodium tubes are prohibitively expensive, whereas the clad tubes of this invention cost must less while performing substantially as effectively.

While only one embodiment of the invention has been shown herein it will be evident that various changes, alternatives and modifications in the construction and arrangement of parts may be resorted to by a person of ordinary skill in the art.