Glass manufacturing – Processes – Fusion bonding of glass to a formed part
Patent
1995-07-13
1999-04-20
Czaja, Donald E.
Glass manufacturing
Processes
Fusion bonding of glass to a formed part
65 66, 65126, 65127, 264 60, 264132, C03B 900, C03B 1100, C03B 1300, C03B 1500
Patent
active
058955127
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a process for the manufacture of an object displaying a message, information, advertising, etc including a transparent body carrying the message, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the field of manufacture of glass balls containing in their interior any kind of design, it is usual to distinguish two categories of techniques. The first technique, usually applied to the manufacture of balls with no value such as marbles for children, entails mixing the glass, before the ball is formed, in an arbitrary manner with one or more materials with different colors, often also glass, in order to obtain coloured inclusions within the ball, which is often of clear glass.
Although this technique can be used to manufacture balls with an arbitrary design, in which case it is entirely satisfactory, it cannot be used to manufacture balls containing a specific design because the arbitrary mixing of the coloured material with the glass of the ball cannot produce a definite design.
There is also another technique for manufacturing balls incorporating an artistic design, for example of enamel, which technique entails manual preparation of the enamel design by an artistic and costly process followed by the introduction of the design, which is carried out on a glass medium, into the molten glass in order to surround the medium with molten glass and then form the ball or other object.
An object of the present invention is to create a process for the manufacture of balls of transparent glass, for example, which carry in their interior a definite design, which process should be usable on an industrial scale to manufacture large numbers of such balls at negligible cost, for example to produce balls carrying advertising, messages or other information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, the above object is achieved by a method as defined above which is characterized in that it comprises the following steps: preparation of a support for said message having dimensions less than the dimensions of the support object; manual or automatic application of the message to said support; introduction of the support carrying said message on its surface into a molten transparent material so as to surround the support with a sufficient quantity of molten transparent material to enable subsequent formation of a transparent body which completely surrounds said support; and formation of the transparent body by thermomechanical means.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the object carrying the message is a glass ball. Said support and the molten material are advantageously glass of the same kind. The object carrying the message can instead be a carafe stopper, the bottom of a drinking glass or the bottom of a plate.
Alternatively, the molten material that will subsequently constitute the ball is transparent glass and the support can be a material having thermal expansion properties compatible with those of said glass, for example copper, gold, platinum, silver, ceramic, enamelled porcelain.
The message can be applied to one or both sides of the support by silkscreen printing, by application of a transfer, by sandblasting or by etching with an acid a multilayer glass of different colors using different masks for each color in the cloisonnee technique in which positive or negative relief printing is applied to the support in a state in which it can be formed and the relief is filled with enamel.
If the message is silkscreen printed on the support, the latter is heated after application of the message to fix the latter to the support. If the message is applied in more than one color the support is heated to a temperature of approximately 150.degree. C. after each application of a different color.
In one particular embodiment of the present invention the support is constituted of thin convex glass wafers to which the message is applied cold.
The wafers can be manufactured by forming a stream of glass out of a pool of molten gla
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Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, p. 409, 1986.
Coupechoux Jean Regis
Dominitz Jacques Charles
Czaja Donald E.
Ruller Jacqueline A.
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