Flow Control of Molten Tin Surface Sloping by a Single-sided Linear Induction Motor

Abstract

This paper presents a flow control of molten tin surface sloping by a Single-sided Linear Induction Motor (SLIM) in a float process that is a typical forming method of flat glass. Flow pattern in the molten tin bath is quite important to keep the good quality of float glass.
The following results are obtained:
(1) It is verified in experiments that the SLIM can maintain a whole surface of molten tin sloping with molybdenum-made bus-bars.
(2) The 80 millimeter-wide bus-bars for the SLIM with pole pitch of 156 millimeters is enough to get the desirable flow direction of molten tin adjacent to the bus-bars.
(3) It is theoretically discussed that the distribution of the secondary current density in molten tin can be controlled with bus-bar conditions.