Fiberizing bushing and method for fiberizing molten material

Abstract

Fiberizing bushings for fiberizing molten materials including molten glass are heated by applying a voltage drop across the bushings wherein molten material flows through an array of hollow tips attached to, or integral with, a tip plate having orifices therein that generally align with channels through the hollow tips to form fibers. The uniformity of the diameter of the fibers produced is much improved by using tips of different lengths and/or tips having channels of differing ID's to compensate for unequal electrical heating and/or cooling effects of drawn-in ambient air that cools the tips on the extreme outer periphery and/or cooling or heating effects of external supports or cooling members running through the array of tips that cools or heats adjacent tips more than the interior tips.

1 - 42 . (canceled) 
     
     
         43 . A method of fiberizing a molten material comprising feeding the molten material into a heated fiberizing bushing for fiberizing the molten material, the bushing comprising at least one wall and a tip plate having a plurality of orifices therein and having an array comprising a plurality of hollow tips with each tip having a channel running generally through the axis of the tip, the channel having an ID and being generally aligned with an orifice in the tip plate, the tips extending beneath the tip plate, the plurality of tips including extreme outer peripheral tips and interior tips, heating the bushing to cause the molten material to flow from the tips forming fibers and pulling fibers away from the tips, the improvement comprising that the configuration of the tips is such that the resistance to flow of at least some of the extreme outer peripheral tips is significantly different than the resistance to flow of at least some of the interior tips. 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 43  wherein the molten material is a molten glass. 
     
     
         45 . The method of  claim 44  wherein the tip plate also comprises one or more tipless spaces to make room for one or more external supports or one or more cooling members and wherein at least some of the tips adjacent to the tipless spaces have a significantly different resistance to flow that at least some of the other tips in the interior of the array.