Glass furnaces · 2026-10-26
Material systems for glass-furnace linings
The regenerator crown, the checkerwork and the other positions in a glass furnace do not see the same flue gas, carryover or fuel. Chrome-corundum, magnesia-zirconia, magnesia, mullite, zircon-mullite and magnesia-chrome are material systems divided along those conditions.
The lining of a glass melting furnace is not one material from end to end. The regenerator crown takes the hot gas and the carryover directly; the checkerwork also has to reverse between heating and cooling; and petroleum-coke firing brings vanadium and sulphur into the flue gas. Materials have to be chosen by position and by fuel.
Chrome-corundum faces the most severe acidic attack at the crown under petroleum-coke firing; magnesia-zirconia faces the crown when the furnace is not fired with petroleum coke, combining thermal-shock resistance with resistance to sulphur dioxide. Magnesia brick, with periclase as its main phase, stores heat well and resists erosion, and is the foundation of the regenerator. Zircon-mullite, with corundum, mullite and ZrO₂ as its main phases, resists high temperature, thermal shock and corrosion, and is used where a glass furnace asks for both thermal-shock and slag resistance. Low-porosity mullite has good thermal shock and high strength, and is used in lime and non-ferrous furnaces as well as in glass. Direct-bonded magnesia-chrome appears in basic positions that must resist both thermal shock and corrosion.
Taken together, the division of labour is clear: first whether the furnace is fired with petroleum coke, then whether the position is the crown, the checkers or elsewhere, and only then the particular material.