Design particulars of production lines transporting glass batch

Abstract

The design particulars of production lines transporting glass batch from compound shops to glassmaking furnaces. Variants of schemes using above-and below-ground galleries are presented. The advantages and disadvantages of different transport-process equipment, affecting the quality of the glass batch, are determined.The final stage of the technological process preparing glass batch is unloading a multicomponent mixture of raw materials from a mixer, after which either the batch is transported into a machine-tank shop and distributed among the loading hoppers of the glassmaking furnace or unloaded into buckets or storage bins, which provide definite process storage (usually for one shift) of the batch. The diversity of equipment used for transporting the batch is determined by the methods used for preparing and measured loading of the batch and cullet into the glass-making furnace, the number of loaders, the construction of the furnace well, the length of the process-flow lines, the relative arrangement of the compound and machine-tank shops, and other factors,The most common elements found in process-flow lines for transporting glass batch in modern compound and machine-tank shops are belt conveyors, elevators, and various mechanisms for changing the flow.Elevator-based flow schemes are most often used in the production of glass containers and make it possible to raise batch rapidly from the level of the unloading hopper of a mixer to the upper level of the hoppers of the furnace loaders, decrease the length of the gallery transport process lines, and decrease the batch transport time, which affects the batch separation and compaction processes.When elevators lift batch directly into the compound shop (Fig. 1) the batch is transported along above-ground (from 8 to 20 m high) heated and unheated galleries and structures, and when the batch is lifted into the machine-tank shop it is transported along below-ground channels and tunnels (Fig. 2).There are a number of advantages to transporting batch below ground as opposed to above ground: the batch is not subjected to daily and seasonal fluctuations of the environmental temperature; additional heating is not required in a below-ground gallery; less equipment is required in the line feeding measured amounts of the plant's own (returned) cullet; the planning of the grounds surrounding the production shops is optimized. The drawbacks are: the cost of wa-

Improvement of Glass Batch Conveyer Lines

“…The quality degradation of the initial mixture of raw materials largely depends on the method used to transport it as well as on the extent and configuration of the continuous batch conveyers. The length of these lines at individual enterprises producing sheet glass and glass containers reaches 100 m or more while the lines themselves can contain turns, branching, and height differences.Belt conveyers equipped with screw and weight belt tightening setups, electric bogies controlled by batch machinists -chargers, and automated container systems for moving batch in portions from the mixers in the batch house to the hoppers of the glass furnace loaders are the primary means used to convey glass batch over such distances [2]. However, it is not always possible to use belt conveyers for such purposes because the batch dries out, separates, and cools during its long trip and several transfers from one conveyer to another.…”

“…Belt conveyers equipped with screw and weight belt tightening setups, electric bogies controlled by batch machinists -chargers, and automated container systems for moving batch in portions from the mixers in the batch house to the hoppers of the glass furnace loaders are the primary means used to convey glass batch over such distances [2]. However, it is not always possible to use belt conveyers for such purposes because the batch dries out, separates, and cools during its long trip and several transfers from one conveyer to another.…”