Glaverbel

Glaverbel-Mecaniver

Azienda S.r.l.

Francois Toussaint

Pierre Goelff

Pierre Laroche

Emile Plumat

Alain Halter

Paul Arker

Joel Hussenet

Jean Schottey

Albert Servais

Andre Hecq

Jean-Claude Hoyois

Hugo Rogghe

Dominique Dubois

Marcel Deizant

Thierry Kemp

Vitaliano Silingardi

In order to prepare particles of a vitreous enamel for use in forming a vitreous enamel body by fusing the particles together to form the body, at least one enamel frit and at least one non-vitreous additive are formed into an agglomerated granular feedstock and passed through a heating chamber whereby such feedstock becomes at least partially molten and rounded, whereafter the resulting rounded vitreous enamel beads are caused or allowed to cool to a temperature below their melting point.

Preparation of vitreous enamels and manufacture of enamel bodies

A method of manufacturing a vitreous enamel body includes forming particles of vitreous material and melting to fuse the particles together to form the body. The particles of vitreous material are spherulized and are selected as to their granulometric properties according to the degree of compaction required in the finished enamel body. From 20% to 40% of the bulk volume of the mixture is a fine particle size fraction. Such a finished enamel body may be a coating, for example a high-compacity enamel coating on a bathtub, or it may be a self-sustaining body, for example a porous vitreous filter element. Porous coatings and compact self-sustaining bodies may also be made.

Method of forming vitreous enamel from spherulized particles

A fire control composition which is in particulate form, which is anhydrous, and which is particularly effective for fighting Class D fires, such as metal fires. The composition includes particles of crushed glass bearing a hydrophobic coating thereon so that agglomeration of the fire control composition due to adsorption of moisture during storage and use is substantially prevented and so that when applied to fire, the fire control composition forms a blanket over the fire which deprives the fire of oxygen and thereby smothers it. The composition may additionally contain at least one additional material, such as salts, spherulized vitreous beads, or graphite which at least one additional material also bears a hydrophobic coating. The median grain size of the crushed glass is preferably below 200 micrometers, most preferably below 120 micrometers, for example, in the range of from 25 to 35 micrometers.

Fire control compositions

A glass article useful, for example, as a cathode ray tube screen, has a viewing light path which passes through at least one surface region over which the glass is matted by surface pits whereby unwanted specular reflection from that matted region is reduced. The light path also passes through a surface layer formed over a region of the glass so as to reduce the total light reflection from that region of the glass.

Glass article having low specular reflection

Glass microbeads bearing a coating which includes at least one binding agent fixed to the glass microbeads, and which binding agent is adapted releasably to bind to a material contained within a fluid medium by a biological affinity reaction, whereby the material can be removed from the fluid medium with the glass microbeads and then stripped from the glass microbeads while leaving the at least one binding agent attached to the glass microbeads. Inventive microbeads may bear a monomolecular layer of a silane as a fixing agent for a binding agent which is selected for its biological affinity for the material to be separated.

Glass microbeads for biochemical separation of material from a fluid

A fire control composition in particulate form and containing no water, which is particularly effective for fighting metal fires, i.e., Class D fires, and which comprises particles of crushed glass bearing a hydrophobic coating thereon so that agglomeration of the fire control composition due to adsorption of moisture during storage and use is substantially prevented and so that when applied to fire, the fire control composition forms a blanket over the fire which deprives the fire of oxygen and thereby smothers it. The composition additionally contains one or more particulate adjuvants selected from salts and/or spherulized vitreous beads, which adjuvants also bear a hydrophobic coating. Useful adjuvants include graphite particles and salts. The median grain size of the crushed glass is below 200 micrometers, preferably below 120 micrometers, for example, in the range of from 25 to 35 micrometers.

Fire control composition

A transparent fire-screening glazing panel has at least one solid intumescent layer comprising a hydrated alkali metal silicate and at least one sheet of glazing material, and the layer of intumescent material contains at least one silicate-stabilizing agent. Suitable stabilizing compounds include at least partially dissociated nitrogenized organic compounds, especially quaternary ammonium compounds such as tetramethylammonium hydroxide. To manufacture such a panel, the silicate-stabilizing agent may be incorporated into an aqueous solution of the intumescent material which is then hardened by drying to form the layer. Alternatively, the silicate-stabilizing agent may be incorporated into an aqueous solution of the intumescent material which is then dried to form grains which are subsequently incorporated into a layer held sandwiched between two sheets of glazing material.

Transparent fire-screening panels

A process of manufacturing vitreous beads is disclosed in which feedstock particles of a glass-former composition containing less than 15% by dry weight of sodium and potassium calculated as their respective oxides and containing chemically bound water, are fed through a heating zone in which the particles are vitrified and spherulized and the resulting vitreous beads are cooled. The vitrifiable oxide forming elements of said glass-former composition may be chemically interlinked, and the feedstock may be prepared as a silica-based gel or precipitate having a composition suitable for vitrification into a glass of a desired composition which by virtue of its low alkali content is resistant to hydrolytic attack. By control of the cellulating agent content (bound water and optionally a gas evolving salt radical such as nitrate or sulphate) of the feedstock, and its granulometry, the relative proportions of solid and hollow beads which will be produced in a given spherulizing run can be controlled.

Manufacturing vitreous beads

A process of manufacturing vitreous beads is disclosed in which feedstock particles of a glass-former composition containing chemically bound water, are fed through a heating zone in which the particles are vitrified and spherulized and the resulting vitreous beads are cooled. The size of the feedstock particles and their content of substance which becomes gaseous during the passage of the particles through said heating zone are such that a least 20% by weight of the formed beads have a relative density greater than I.O. The vitrifiable oxide forming elements of said glass-former composition may be chemically interlinked, and the feedstock may be prepared as a silica-based gel or precipitate having a composition suitable for vitrification into a glass of any desired composition for example one which by virtue of its low alkali content is resistant to hydrolytic attack. By control of the cellulating agent content (bound water and optionally a gas evolving salt radical such as nitrate or sulphate) of the feedstock, and its granulometry, the relative proportions of solid and hollow beads which will be produced in a given spherulizing run can be controlled.

An electrochromic device comprising a solid layered structure. The structure includes a pair of electrodes and an electrochromic layer sandwiched between the pair of electrodes. The device is sandwiched between a pair of vitreous sheets of which at least one is transparent with a reservoir of ionizable material being held between the sheets. On application of an electrical potential between the electrodes, ions are permitted to migrate between the ionizable material and the electrochromic layer.

Electrochromic display devices

A method of manufacturing a composite which includes a mirror panel comprising the steps of water-tightly bonding a first backing sheet made of waterproof material to the rear side of a mirror including a vitreous sheet bearing a radiation-reflecting coating on its rear side, thereby forming a mirror/backing sheet laminate; locating the laminate and a second backing sheet between a pair of dies with the laminate and the second backing positioned in spaced relationship; injecting the space between the laminate and the second backing sheet with a foamable plastic material; allowing or causing the foamable plastic material to foam and thereby press the laminate and the second backing sheet into close conformity with the respective die faces and, allowing or causing the foam to set and adhere to each backing sheet while the laminate and second backing sheet are pressed against the die faces to form a substantially rigid composite sandwich structure.

Composite mirror panels

A continuous process of making glass, in which a vitrifiable batch is fed to a furnace equipped with heating devices for melting the batch so as to produce molten glass. The furnace has a melting end into which the batch is fed and a delivery end remote from the melting end and from which delivery end molten glass is withdrawn. The furnace presents a melting zone adjacent the melting end, in which the batch is melted. The melting zone is composed in the vertical direction of an upper half constituting a batch zone and of a lower half, and the melting zone is further composed in the horizontal direction of an upstream half proximate to the melting end and of a downstream half remote from the melting end. In order to promote melting of the vitrifiable batch, to thereby improve the quality of the glass produced, a direct electric current is established, during the process, between at least one cathode located in the upstream half of the batch zone and at least one anode located outside the batch zone.

Glass manufacture

A method of modifying the light-reflecting properties of a surface of a glass article by etching the surface with acid. The method includes the steps of smoothly applying to the surface of the article a uniform film of acid that is sufficiently thin so that quantities of the acid are prevented from flowing across the surface of the article and subsequently rinsing the article.

Method of modifying the light-reflecting properties of glass

In the coloring of bodies of glass by diffusion of coloring ions from a treatment medium into surface layers thereof, the repeatability of the resulting coloration is improved by controlling not only the treatment temperature and composition of the medium and the treatment time, but also by controlling the electrical potential within the medium between a pair of electrodes in contact therewith. Preferably, for electrodes of specified composition and structure, this potential is maintained at a value between -600 mV and +300 mV.

Colored transparent articles

Glass bodies formed from a vitrifiable composition are given a desired coloration by introducing a reducing agent into surface layers of the body, during or after its formation from a molten composition, and the then the body surface into contact with a diffusion medium composed of a mixture of a salt furnishing reducible metal ions which are capable of being reduced by the reducing agent, and a diluting agent constituted by a salt of another metal, the body being subjected to temperature conditions such as to cause the reducible metal ions to diffuse into the body surface layers and to there be chemically reduced by the reducing agent.

Growing community of inventors

Montignies-le-Tilleul, Belgium

Francois Toussaint