Chemical striae are present in a broad range of glass products, but due to their negative impact on, for example, the optical and mechanical properties, elimination of striae from melts is a key issue in glass technology. By varying melting temperatures, retention times and redox conditions of an iron-bearing calcium aluminosilicate melt, we quantify the effect of each of the three melting parameters on the stria content in the melt. The quantification of the stria content in the melt is conducted by means of image analysis on cast melt samples. We find that in comparison to an extension of retention time an increase of melt temperature and/or a decrease of viscosity play a more important role in decreasing the stria content. We also demonstrate the the extent of striation is influenced by the crucible material that cause a change of redox state of the melt, and hence its viscosity. We discuss the effect of other factors such as compositional fluctuation of the melt and bubbling due to iron reduction on the stria content. During the melting process, stria with a chemical gradient in a more mobile species equilibrate faster than stria caused by a chemical gradient in a less mobile species. The temperature and time effects on melt homogeneity at lower temperatures are large than at high temperatures.
