Predictive modeling of glass quenching for tableware products

Abstract

In glassware markets related to tableware, for which Arc is one of the world leaders, the increased requirement of customer specifications and quality of production, but also of energy efficiency and limiting the environmental impact, requires increased control and finer and more in-depth knowledge of processes, going from the molten glass inside the furnaces to the final product. Glass tempering is an important part of the global process and has been deployed for many years in the glass industry. It generates compressive stress fields on the surface which greatly improve the mechanical strength properties of the products. The addition, or superimposition of these compressive stresses on the surface makes them more resistant to mechanical shocks, but also to thermal shocks.Modeling and numerical simulations are powerful tools allowing a better understanding and analysis, to be able to improve the process and quality of the produced item. To be predictive with a sufficient accuracy to achieve these goals, the modeling of the thermal tempering must integrate several key factors: (i) the item's geometry (highly three-dimensional for tableware industry products) and the thickness distributions, (ii) cooling systems representative of real conditions, (iii) a good knowledge of physical and physico-chemical parameters of the glass, over the entire temperature range concerned by thermal tempering