What Are The Classifications of Glass Tempering Furnaces? Specific Types And Components

A glass tempering furnace, also known as a tempering furnace, is an equipment used to produce tempered glass. It improves the strength of the glass by forming a compressive stress layer on the surface of the glass. There are many sub categories of production equipment suitable for different working principles and product sizes or forms.

1、 Classification of glass tempering furnaces

1. Classification based on production methods

Tempering furnaces can be divided into physical glass tempering equipment and chemical glass tempering equipment.

The physical method is to heat the flat glass and then perform rapid cooling technology treatment. After cooling, the glass surface is subjected to compressive stress, forming internal tensile stress and achieving the effect of strengthening the glass;

The chemical method of chemical tempering changes the chemical composition of glass by changing the surface chemical composition of the glass to improve its strength. The surface is subjected to methods such as dealkalization and alkali metal ion exchange.

2. Classification based on heating characteristics

Tempering furnaces can be divided into glass tempering furnaces, forced convection heating tempering equipment, and radiation tempering equipment.

Radiation type tempering equipment mainly provides a heat source for the glass surface through the thermal radiation of heating elements. The heat transfer on the upper part of the glass and the surface temperature of the heater are related to the radiation rate of the glass surface. The temperature inside the furnace and the arrangement of the heater in the furnace determine the heat transfer effect and heating quality of the tempering furnace.

The forced convection tempering furnace is controlled in multiple areas on the cross-section of the tempering furnace, which can achieve edge temperature compensation, more accurate heating control, and more reasonable convection mode. High temperature fans are installed on both the upper and lower parts, which can accurately control the temperature of the roller passage and ensure even heating.

3. Classification based on heating method

The tempering furnace equipment can be divided into electrically heated glass tempering furnaces and gas heated tempering furnaces.

Electric heating tempering furnace is a glass tempering equipment that uses electric furnace wire heating as the heating energy source, which is also a common and traditional heating method for glass tempering furnaces.

A new type of tempering equipment using gas (natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas) as a heating energy source, which uses gas combustion heat energy to heat glass. By using a high-speed gas burner, the gas is fully burned to generate heat energy for the operation of the tempering furnace to heat the glass.

4. Classify according to the structural characteristics of the equipment

Tempering furnaces can be divided into flat tempering equipment, bending tempering equipment, continuous tempering equipment, bidirectional tempering equipment, combination tempering equipment, unequal arc bending tempering equipment, hanging furnace tempering equipment, and so on. This classification method is mainly based on the different requirements of glass production specifications and characteristics, whether it is flat glass or curved glass, giant screen glass or small piece glass. For example, flat tempered glass is mainly used for building doors and windows, building glass curtain walls, and observation windows for various thermal furnace doors. When choosing a glass tempered furnace, we can also make reasonable choices based on the specific needs of the product.

2、 The components of a glass tempering furnace

The glass tempering furnace is mainly composed of four parts: discharge section, convection heating section, flat tempering section, and extraction section, as well as high-pressure centrifugal fan, air supply pipeline, air collection box, gas circuit, electrical control cabinet, operation platform, etc.

1. Fragment release: Fragment release is the starting position of the glass tempering furnace, with the front end being a transmission roller, mostly made of steel adhesive surface material, to reduce the impact of the roller on the glass during release, and sent to the heating furnace through a conveyor belt.

2. Convection heating section: The heating section consists of a heating furnace body, transmission system, and lifting system. When the glass enters the furnace, the furnace door opens, and the feeding roller drives the glass forward. After the glass enters the furnace, the furnace door closes, and the glass swings back and forth in the furnace under the drive of the roller, evenly heating.

3. Flat tempered section: After the heating section, the glass needs to be cooled and shaped before entering the flat tempered section. This section consists of cooling air grilles, conveying rollers, and air collection boxes. The upper and lower air grilles are composed of several air distribution grilles in parallel. Cold air is sprayed out from the nozzle of the air grille, high-speed sprayed onto the glass, and then rapidly diffused. At the same time, the glass swings back and forth on the roller conveyor, accelerating the tempering process.

4. Fragment retrieval: Fragment retrieval is a horizontal roller conveyor that is the same as the placement of fragments, with a photoelectric switch installed at the end. The roller conveyor automatically pauses by sensing the position distance of the glass, and workers unload the fragments.

Based on the above introduction, everyone should be clear about the classification of glass tempering furnaces. In fact, the actual components of these types of tempering furnaces are generally the same. When choosing a glass tempering furnace, you should still make specific choices based on the different products you want to produce.