GLASSWORKING

Manufacturing Processes
(© Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing; Materials, Processes and Systems,
by M. P. Groover)

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 OVERVIEW
• Glass products are commercially
manufactured in an almost unlimited variety
of shapes.
• Many are produced in very large quantities,
such as light bulbs, beverage bottles, and
window glass.
• Others, such as giant telescope lenses, are
made individually

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 GLASS WORKING
crystalline, amorphous
• Glass is one of three basic types of ceramics
• It is distinguished by its noncrystalline (vitreous) structure, whereas the
other ceramic materials have a crystalline structure.
• The methods by which glass is shaped into useful products are quite
different from those used for the other types.
• In glassworking, the principal starting material is silica (SiO2); this is
usually combined with other oxide ceramics, which form glasses.
• The starting material is heated to transform it from a hard solid into a
viscous liquid; it is then shaped into the desired geometry while in this
highly plastic or fluid condition.
• When cooled and hard, the material remains in the glassy state rather
than crystallizing.

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GLASS WORKING

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 PREPARATION
• The main component in nearly all glasses is silica, the
primary source of which is natural quartz in sand.
• The sand must be washed and classified.
• Washing removes impurities such as clay and certain
minerals that would cause undesirable coloring of the
glass.
• Classifying the sand means grouping the grains
according to size.
• The most desirable particle size for glassmaking is in
the range of 0.1 to 0.6 mm

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 PREPARATION
• The various other components, such as soda ash (source of Na2O),
limestone (source of CaO), aluminum oxide, potash (source ofK2O),
and other minerals are added in the proper proportions to achieve
the desired composition.
• The mixing is usually done in batches, in amounts that are
compatible with the capacities of available melting furnaces.
• Recycled glass is usually added to the mixture in modern practice.
• In addition to preserving the environment, recycled glass facilitates
melting.
• Depending on the amount of waste glass available and the
specifications of the final composition, the proportion of recycled
glass may be up to 100%.

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 PREPARATION ANG MELTING
• The batch of starting materials to be melted is referred to as a
charge, and the procedure of loading it into the melting
furnace is called charging the furnace.
• Glass melting furnaces can be divided into the following types:
(1) Pot furnaces—ceramic pots of limited capacity in
which melting occurs by heating the walls of the pot;
(2) Day tanks—larger capacity vessels for batch production in
which heating is done by burning fuels above the charge;
(3) Continuous tank furnaces—long tank furnaces in which raw
materials are fed in one end, and melted as they move to the other
end where molten glass is drawn out for high production;
(4) Electric furnaces of various designs for a wide range of
production rates.

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 PREPARATION ANG MELTING
• Glass melting is generally carried out at temperatures
around 1500C to 1600C (2700F to 2900F).
• The melting cycle for a typical charge takes 24 to 48 hours.
• This is the time required for all of the sand grains to
become a clear liquid and the molten glass to be refined
and cooled to the appropriate temperature for working.
• Molten glass is a viscous liquid, the viscosity being inversely
related to temperature.
• Because the shaping operation immediately follows the
melting cycle, the temperature at which the glass is tapped
from the furnace depends on the viscosity required for the
subsequent process.

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 SHAPING PROCESSES IN GLASSWORKING

• The shaping processes to fabricate glass products

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 SHAPING OF PIECE WARE
• SPINNING:
– Glass spinning is similar to centrifugal casting of metals, and is also known by
that name in glassworking.
– It is used to produce funnel-shaped components such as the back sections of
cathode ray tubes for televisions and computer monitors.
– A gob of molten glass is dropped into a conical mold made of steel.
– The mold is rotated so that centrifugal force causes the glass to flow upward
and spread itself on the mold surface.
– The faceplate (i.e. the front viewing screen) is later assembled to the funnel
using a sealing glass of low melting point.

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 SHAPING OF PIECE WARE
• PRESSING:
– Pressing is a widely used process for mass
producing glass pieces such as dishes, bake ware,
headlight lenses, TV tube faceplates, and similar
items that are relatively flat.
– The large quantities of most pressed products
justify a high level of automation in this production
sequence.

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 SHAPING OF PIECE WARE
• BLOWING:
– Several shaping sequences include blowing as one
or more of the steps.
– Instead of a manual operation, blowing is
performed on highly automated equipment.
– The two important sequences are:
• press-and-blow
• blow-and-blow

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 SHAPING OF PIECE WARE
• BLOW-AND-BLOW METHOD

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 SHAPING OF PIECE WARE
• PRESS AND BLOW METHOD

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 SHAPING OF PIECE WARE
• CASTING:
– If the molten glass is sufficiently fluid, it can be poured into
a mold.
– Relatively massive objects, such as astronomical lenses and
mirrors, are made by this method.
– These pieces must be cooled very slowly to avoid internal
stresses and possible cracking owing to temperature
gradients that would otherwise be set up in the glass.
– After cooling and solidifying, the piece must be finished by
lapping and polishing.
– Casting is not much used in glassworking except for these
kinds of special jobs.
– Not only is cooling and cracking a problem, but also molten
glass is relatively viscous at normal working temperatures,
and does not flow through small orifices or into small
sections as well as molten metals or heated thermoplastics.15
SHAPING OF FLAT AND TUBULAR GLASS
• Two methods are typically employed for
making plate glass and one method for
producing tube stock.
• They are continuous processes, in which long
sections of flat window glass or glass tubing are
made and later cut into appropriate sizes and
lengths.

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FLOAT PROCESS

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DRAWING OF GLASS TUBES

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 FORMING OF GLASS FIBERS
• Glass fibers are used in applications ranging
from insulation wool to fiber optics
communications lines
• Glass fiber products can be divided into two
categories:
– Fibrous glass for thermal insulation, acoustical
insulation, and air filtration, in which the fibers are in a
random, wool-like condition
– Long, continuous filaments suitable for fiber-reinforced
plastics, yarns and fabrics, and fiber optics.

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 FORMING OF GLASS FIBERS
• Centrifugal Spraying
– In a typical process for making glass wool, molten
glass flows into a rotating bowl with many small
orifices around its periphery.
– Centrifugal force causes the glass to flow through
the holes to become a fibrous mass suitable for
thermal and acoustical insulation.

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 FORMING OF GLASS FIBERS
• Drawing of Continuous Filaments
– Glass fibers of small diameter (the
lower size limit is around 0.0025 mm
[0.0001 in]) are produced by drawing
strands of molten glass through small
orifices in a heated plate made of a
platinum alloy.
– The plate may have several hundred
holes, each making one fiber.
– The individual fibers are collected
into a strand by reeling them onto a
spool.
– Before spooling, the fibers are coated
with various chemicals to lubricate
and protect them.
– Drawing speeds of around 50 m/s
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(10,000 ft/min) or more are not
 HEAT TREATMENT
• Glass products usually have undesirable internal
stresses after forming, which reduce their
strength.
• Annealing is done to relieve these stresses; the
treatment therefore has the same function in
glassworking as it does in metalworking.
• Annealing involves heating the glass to an elevated
temperature and holding it for a certain period to
eliminate stresses and temperature gradients,
then slowly cooling the glass to suppress stress
formation, followed by more rapid cooling to room
temperature.
• Common annealing temperatures are around 500C
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 HEAT TREATMENT
• Annealing in modern glass factories is
performed in tunnel-like furnaces, called lehrs,
in which the products flow slowly through the
hot chamber on conveyors.
• Burners are located only at the front end of the
chamber, so that the glass experiences the
required heating and cooling cycle.

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 HEAT TREATMENT
• A beneficial internal stress pattern can be developed in glass products by a heat
treatment known as tempering, resulting in tempered glass.
• Tempering increases the toughness of glass.
• The process involves heating the glass to a temperature above its annealing temperature
and into the plastic range, followed by quenching of the surfaces, usually with air jets.
• When the surfaces cool, they contract and harden while the interior is still plastic and
compliant.
• As the internal glass slowly cools, it contracts, thus putting the hard surfaces in
compression.
• Like other ceramics, glass is much stronger when subjected to compressive stresses than
tensile stresses.
• Tempered glass is much more resistant to scratching and breaking because of the
compressive stresses on its surfaces.
• Applications include windows for tall buildings, all-glass doors, safety glasses, and other
products requiring toughened glass.
• When tempered glass fails, it does so by shattering into small fragments that are less
likely to cut someone than conventional (annealed) glass.
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 LAMINATED GLASS
• Automobile windshields are not made of
tempered glass, because of the danger posed
to the driver by this fragmentation.
• Instead, conventional glass is used; however, it
is fabricated by sandwiching two pieces of glass
on either side of a tough polymer sheet.
• Should this laminated glass fracture, the glass
splinters are retained by the polymer sheet and
the windshield remains relatively transparent.
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 FINISHING
• Include grinding, polishing, and cutting.
• When glass sheets are produced by drawing and
rolling, the opposite sides are not necessarily
parallel, and the surfaces contain defects and
scratch marks caused by the use of hard tooling on
soft glass.
• The glass sheets must be ground and polished for
most commercial applications.
• In pressing and blowing operations when split dies
are used, polishing is often required to remove the
seam marks from the container product.
point for bacterial growth, low quality bottles, containers26
have this