Academic Courses

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Subject index 

Course 1 - Glass and Glass Structure

Glass and glass structure, definition of glass, glass formation, transition in glass, Glass manufacture methods, float, sheet, container, fiber, TV, optical, tubing. Types of glasses and their composition, Extra clear glass, Phase diagrams, phase separation, equilibrium diagrams, devitrification, Ellingham, Composition design, trial melting, batch formulation principles Glass technologist  manual. Glass terms, Properties of glass.

Course 2 - Batch House, Raw materials, Glass batch

Glass raw materials, prospecting for minerals, spot test for raw materials, oxide contribution, raw material specifications, Raw material control, Magnetic and electrostatic separation, Sand – types, glass making sand, Sodium carbonate - Natural soda ash, manufactured soda ash, dense , light, Other raw materials. Raw material control Glass colourants Glass technologist responsibility Batch house – Design and layout, material storage methods, commissioning a batch house,  Batch Tests Batch weighing, Dosage of minor materials Batch plant equipment – conveyors, silos, hoppers , bins, material handling Cullet – cullet generation , cullet control, Batch calculation- methodology, oxide factors, manual calculation, software for calculation, Batch mixing,  Batch costing, Batch  charging to furnace Batch tests, batch control Batch house ESP – Dust control measures, MSDS

Course 3 - Furnace Design and Refractories

Types of glass melting furnaces, Refractory – Types of refractory and their manufacture, Refractory for glass manufacture, Basic refractory, Acidic refractory, Fire clay refractory, Silica refractory, Fused cast refractory, Insulating refractory, Monolithic refractory,, Properties and testing of refractory, Refractory standards,  Refractory specifications, Defects from refractory. Selection of refractory, Furnace design – Typical furnace design drawings and sketches,- Container furnace, Float glass furnace, Fibre furnace, Tubing furnace, Oglass furnace, specialty glass (technical glass )  furnaces, Dog-house, Furnace bottom design, Side wall, breast wall superstructure, furnace crown design, Port neck, Regenerators and recuperators Working end, flue line chimney design, Canal fore-hearth, Feeder bowl expendables. Drains and overflows, Walls – back wall, dam wall, gable wall shadow walls, curtains. Furnace maintenance and repair Steel work for furnace – backstays, tie-rods, bottom steel,  Furnace heat up and cool down Furnace equipment – batch chargers, combustion air system, furnace cooling, Reversal system, Combustion system. Furnace ventilation, stirrers, Barrage, Valves and dampers, Level control system Boosting and Bubbling

Course 4 - Furnace Operation and Glass Melting

 Course 5 - Furnace Electric Boosting and Bubbling

Principles of electric boost for glass melting, All electric melting Benefits and economics of boosting, Boosting system for a Float glass furnace Boosting system for a container glass furnace, Bottom boosting and Sidewall boosting Electrodes for boosting, Electrodes block design, Transformers, and circuit design. Maintenance of electrodes Special boosting – Throat, forehearth boost Operation of a boosting system, Boosting control Defects from Boosting Boosting emergencies 

Bubbling – Bubblers and bubbler installation, Pulse bubbling, Bubbling operation

Course 6 - Float Bath and Float Glass forming Technology

Float bath design – Bottom Blocks, Bath construction, Design specifications – mini float,(350 t/d), 600 t/d, 1000 t/d float bath, Float bath dimensions, Roofing design, Lintel, LOR, Spout, Dross box, De-drosser, Side sealing, Refractory for float bath, casing, 

Float bath heat-up, draining and cooling

Float  , Direct stretch assisted direct stretch, top roll method , Fender method, wet back flow, ribbon spread, striction and equilibrium thickness.

Float bath equipment– Top rolls, Front tweel back tweel, Flags, water fence, coolers –hot end, exit, Linear motors, tin coolers, Blocking, Carbon pusher, water fence, Flat arches, Venting, Roof heating, bath atmosphere,

Float bath Operation– Ribbon startup and shut down, TR setup, TR setup for different thicknesses, Thickness change, Width control and width change, Thickness profile, Coolers setup, Edge loss, Edge quality and edge conditioning, Flatness control, Pull control in bath, Tweel operation, Roof heating control, Tin – filling, tin currents, tin depth, tin level control, Bath atmosphere setup, and optimization, Venting control, LOR setup, wash ,and side cooling, Side sealing procedure, Bath tools, Float forming performance

Float Bath emergencies – Exit break(ribbon break), Atmosphere stoppage, Power failure, Tin leakage, Other emergencies

Course 7 -Glass Annealing Technology

Principles of Glass Annealing, Annealing lehr design, construction and Installation, Heat up and cool down of lehrs, Float Glass annealing, Container glass Annealing, defects, Annealing and cutting in flat glass,, Edge stress , edge conditioning in Bow and dish effect in flat glass, Stresses in glass, and transverse stresses in flat glass, Polarimetry, Lehr temperature setup and cooling curves, Lehr Breakage in flat glass annealing, Heat transfer in lehr, Energy consumption in lehrs, Annealing flat glass, Decorating lehrs, Instrumentation in lehrs, Modeling of lehrs and annealing, Cooling systems in lehrs, Lehr maintenance, Rollers for float lehr, Defects from rollers,

Course 8 - Quality control in Glass manufacture

Properties of glass – Mechanical properties, Physical peopperties, Electrical properties, Chemical properties, Optyical properties, Acoustic properties. Property control. Strength of glass

Defects in Glass – Bubbles and seeds, Stones and cords, Colour defects, Surface defects, Dimensional defects, Forming defects’, Optical defects.

Float glass quality

Raw material analysis, Glass analysis, 

Quality trouble shooting

Course 9 - Processing of flat glass and other glass products

Glass quality for processing

Glass Cutting, Principles of glass cutting, Cutting equipment and tools, Online cutting, Offline and manual cutting, Effect of stress on cutting, Laser cutting, Cutting defects and QC

Glass in Glazing, Insulated glass units, Sound insulation.

Laminated Glass, Glass Tempering- Thermal, chemical, Heat soak, Heat strengthening, fire resistant glass,

Mirrors, Decoration and printing

Glass Grinding and polishing, Cleaning and washing, Acid etch, Frosting, Bending and slagging, Bending automotive glass,

Displays and solar PV

Course 10 - Coloured glasses 

Colour concepts, glass colouration principle, Colourimetry, Colourants for glass, Colour batch, Colour mix, Manufacture of coloured float glass – Bronze, Grey, Blue, Green. Amber glass, Redox and Colour,  De-colourizing

Spectro-photometry, Spectral curves of coloured glasses, Solar and optical performance of coloured glasses

Colour glass production, Colour change.