MANUFACTURING PROCESS OF FLOAT GLASS

In 1959, Sir Alastair Pilkington announced the development of the “float glass process” for
making flat glass that fundamentally changed the way in which high-quality flat glass was
made (Pilkington). Float glass combines many key qualities that allow its use in such a wide
range of applications. These include:
1.virtually distortion free and
2.high visible transmission.

As a result of these properties float glass is widely used today in many segments of our
lives for high-quality windows and mirrors in residential, architectural, commercial, and
automotive applications.

A range of added functions are now available IN FLOAT GLASS METHOD:

• solar control coatings to reduce the solar heat gain in buildings and thus reduce air
conditioning costs;
• Low-emissivity coatings that allow heat into a room, but when this is reradiated from
black bodies within the room at longer wavelengths the coatings are designed to keep
this energy within the room, thus reducing heating bills;
• transparent conductive oxide film coatings for use in devices such as electrochromic
mirrors; and
• antireflective coatings to reduce unwanted reflections in critical environments such as
photocopiers and shop windows.
 STAGES OF FLOAT GLASS PROCESS:
• The phrase “to float” means “to be buoyant”. And this is basically the principle on which
the float glass manufacturing process is based.
• In the float glass process, molten glass is fed onto a float bath of molten tin. This tin bath is
4-8 meters wide and up to 60 meters long.
• To prevent the tin surface from oxidizing with the atmospheric oxygen, the tin bath is
placed under a protective gas atmosphere. This atmosphere must be carefully controlled
since its composition is instrumental for the properties of the contact surface between
the glass and the tin which, in turn, influence the thickness of the glass sheet.

STEP 1
COLLECTING RAW MATERIALS.
The main components, namely,
• soda lime glass,
• silica sand (73%),
• calcium oxide (9%),
• soda (13%) and
• magnesium (4%), are weighed and
mixed into batches to which recycled glass (cullet) is added.The use of ‘cullet’ reduces the
consumption of natural gas. The materials are tested and stored for
later mixing under computerised control.
• Silica sand is the major raw material used in the
manufacturing process.but the silica sand has the highest
melting point of 1750°C.
• Flux,most particularly soda ash is mixed with batch raw
materials to reduce the melting point of the raw materials.
• Little amount of water is added over the substrates ,so that it
does not lose its homogenity,.
• In order to make the mixture stable ,three main stabilisers
are added : 1.ALUMINA
2.MAGNESIA
3. LIME
• For colored glass ,different salt is added for each color.
• Ex.. blue-cobalt green-iron oxide
• bronze-iron,selenium, grey-iron,selenium,
• cobalt cobalt,chrome
STEP 2
 MELTING AND REFINING
Fine-grained ingredients, closely controlled for quality, are mixed to make batch, which flows as a blanket on to molten
glass at 1,500°C in the melter.
Float makes glass of near optical quality. Several processes – melting, refining, homogenising – take place simultaneously in
the 2,000 tonnes of molten glass in the furnace. They occur in separate zones in a complex glass flow driven by high
temperatures. It adds up to a continuous melting process, lasting as long as 50 hours, that delivers glass at 1,100°C, free
from inclusions and bubbles, smoothly and continuously to the float bath. This process of removal of the CO 2 from the
raw material is called as the process of refining. In order to make this refining process much more efficient we add a
refining agent that is in the form of sodium sulphate.
STEP 3
MOLTEN GLASS ONTO THE TIN BATH
• Glass from the melter flows gently over a refractory spout on to the mirror-
like surface of molten tin, starting at 1,100°C and leaving the float bath as a
solid ribbon at 600°C.
• The glass which is highly viscous and the tin which is very fluid do not mix and
the contact surface between these two materials is perfectly flat.
• The bath has a gear rollers over the tin ,when the molten glass is laid flat over
the tin ,the gear lengthens the width and thickness based on the customers
purpose that is automated already in the digital top .
• The bath is enclosed tightly to ensure the controlled atmosphere over there.

STEP 4
Coatings that make profound changes in optical properties can be applied by
advanced high temperature technology to the cooling ribbon of glass.
On-line chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of coatings is the most significant
advance in the float process since it was invented.
CVD can be used to lay down a variety of coatings, less than a micron thick, to
reflect visible and infrared wavelengths, for instance.
Multiple coatings can be deposited in the few seconds available as the glass
ribbon flows beneath the coaters.
STEP 5
ANNEALING
• On leaving the bath of molten tin, the glass – now at a
temperature of 600°C – has cooled down sufficiently to pass
to an annealing chamber called a lehr.
• The glass is now hard enough to pass over rollers and is
annealed, which modifies the internal stresses enabling it to
be cut and worked in a predictable way and ensuring flatness
of the glass. As both surfaces are fire finished, they need no
grinding or polishing.
In the A zone the way the air is provided is a cold air, it is an
coherent form we can cool the glass very fast.
The B segment is divided in to B1 B2 B3, a very long range it is
cooled very very slowly .
And after that it is a C zone in which again a cold air mass
quantity of glass, air is being passed to have a very little bit of
fast rate of cooling.
And in the D zone it is a preheated air, but direct and cooling
with passing of the air in contact with the glass not through the
ducks as it is done in A B and C zones.
And in F zones it is done with a mass air cold air directly into the
glass to cool at faster rate.
STEP 6
INSPECTION
The float process is renowned for making perfectly flat, flaw-free
glass. But to ensure the highest quality, inspection takes place at every
stage.
Occasionally a bubble is not removed during refining, a sand grain
refuses to melt, a tremor in the tin puts ripples into the glass ribbon.
Automated on-line inspection does two things. It reveals process
faults upstream that can be corrected. And it enables computers
downstream to steer cutters round flawsThe data drives ‘intelligent’
cutters, further improving product quality to the customer.
STEP 7
CUTTING TO ORDER
Diamond wheels trim off selvedge - stressed edges - and cut
the ribbon to size dictated by computer.
Float glass is sold by the square metre. Computers translate
customers’ requirements into patterns of cuts designed to
minimise wastage.
Glass can be cut it into a big size glass called as a
• jumbo glass
• medium sized glasses which is called as a DLF
• or the small standard size is called as a SSS.
REFERENCE

https://www.pilkington.com/en/global/about/education/the-float-process/the-float-process-step-by-step
http://www.glass-academy.com/float-glass-production-process/

THANK YOU
PRESENTED BY
A.KARUNYA BHARGAVI