In-situ determination of the heat flux density at the glass/mould interface during a glass pressing production cycle

The glass pressing process involves heat transfer between the glass gob and the forming tool which are among the most important parameters influencing the thermo-mechanical stresses in the moulds. The present paper presents the development of the instrumentation of a mould for the measurement of temperatures during the production cycle. These measurements are exploited with an inverse method to evaluate the heat flux densities at the working surface of the mould. The influence of each process stage and of the location at the surface of the mould on the thermal loadings are described. The evaluated heat flux densities are used as boundary conditions in a finite element calculation. The validity of these results are discussed taking into account the differences between experiment and calculation, the hypothesis of the inverse method and the time response of the thermocouples.