Effects of right refractory material selection on tableware glass production effiency

With the development of glass industry, the production of higher quality glass with reduced cost has become vital. That is why, the selection of the refractory material used in the glass melting furnaces and keeping up with the advances in the refractory industry is of utmost importance. Clearly; melting tank, working tank and the so called forehearths are the building blocks of the glass production process. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the use of Alpha Beta High Alumina (JARGAL®) refractory which is expected to give rise to less glass defects and help to increase the overall efficiency of glass production instead of Alumina Zirconia Silica (ER1618) refractory which causes various glass defects and decreases the overall efficiency of the glass production when used in the working tanks and the forehearths. In the predicted study; first of all, the characterizations of the Alumina Zirconia Silica and Alpha Beta High Alumina refractory bricks and the samples of glass coming from two different glass furnaces have been identified with XRF and XRD. After that; relative density, crushing strenghth and refractoriness-under-load tests have been performed to evaluate the physical properties of the refractory materials. After making basic refractory comparisons, in order to show the relationship between the refractory material and the glass; exudation, stoning and blistering tests have been conducted. At these steps, the state of the internal surfaces of the refractory bricks have been characterized by carrying out micro structure analyses with SEM. As a result of the conducted investigations,it is concluded that in the production of tableware glass, the use of Alpha Beta High Alumina refractory instead of AZS refractory will affect the overall glass production efficiency positively by minimizing the glass defects and it will become economically more advantageous in the long run.