Bubbles are frequent defects for glass producers. In most cases, it is a mystery where bubbles are coming from. The main initial source of bubbles is batch melting. Batch melting reactions release a large amount of CO2 gas that creates an enormous amount of bubbles. These bubbles need to be refined to produce high quality glass. Glass Service has developed a "High Temperature Observation" (HTO) furnace to observe this initial melting stage and to analyze which raw materials mixture or fining agents deliver the fastest and best seed free glass. This article classifies some different bubble sources and bubble formation as examples. Also shown are examples of modelling and bubble gas analyses using a Mass Spectrometer for single bubble categories and bubble source identification.
