Scribd
Upload
2K views6 pages

Glass Manufacturing Process Overview

The manufacturing process of glass involves 4 stages: 1) Melting of raw materials at 1500°C, 2) Forming glass between 650-1050°C using either rolled, float, or wired processes, 3) Cooling (annealing) in a lehr to prevent breaking, and 4) Finishing including cutting, polishing, and packaging. The float process developed in 1959 produces very flat glass by floating molten glass on a bath of molten tin.

Uploaded by

Aida Suhanum
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
2K views6 pages

Glass Manufacturing Process Overview

The manufacturing process of glass involves 4 stages: 1) Melting of raw materials at 1500°C, 2) Forming glass between 650-1050°C using either rolled, float, or wired processes, 3) Cooling (annealing) in a lehr to prevent breaking, and 4) Finishing including cutting, polishing, and packaging. The float process developed in 1959 produces very flat glass by floating molten glass on a bath of molten tin.

Uploaded by

Aida Suhanum
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • Manufacturing Process Stages: Describes the four fundamental stages of the manufacturing process for glass production: Melting, Forming, Cooling, and Finishing.
  • Rolled Process: Introduces the rolled process for glass production, describing the rollers' configuration and the flow of molten glass.
  • Sheet Process: Explains the sheet process used in glass production, detailing the equipment and the continuous ribbon method.
  • Wired-Glass Process: Describes the production process of wired glass, emphasizing the use of two sets of forming rollers and ribbon of glass.
  • Float Process: Presents the float process used by Pilkington Industries, focusing on producing flat glass sheets with high precision and clear surface.

Manufacturing Process

Based on four fundamental stages:


Stages instructions Description
1 Melting  Material: sand (72%)| soda ash (13%)| Lime (10%) |
Dolomite (4%).
 Weighed & mixed in the correct proportions to
produce a mixture known as frit.
 Waste broken glass (cutlet) is recycled along with
frit, usually in the proportions of 80% frit and 20%
cutlet.
 Melting takes place in a regenerative tank furnace at
1500°C
 Regenerative - furnace exhaust gases give up much
of their heat to combustion air.
2 Forming  The molten glass leave the furnace at 1050°C.
 The forming process must take place in the
temperature range 650°C - 1050°C.
 Below 650°C the glass becomes too vicious to bend,
stretch or shape.
 Two main forming processes for producing flat glass
- rolled process & float process.
3 Cooling  Because of the low thermal conductivity of glass - it
does not cool uniformly:
 The surfaces cool more rapidly and shrink more
rapidly than the center.
 This produce uncontrolled strain in the glass.
 If surface is scratched - glass will disintegrate.
 Cannot withstand thermal shock.
 Liable to break in use.
 Annealing - slow cooling at controlled rata (in a
controlled atmosphere).
 To avoid excessive strain in glass.
 Annealing done in an oven (chamber) called lehr.
 Glass ribbon will pass on a slow moving conveyor
belt through the annealing lehr.

4 Finishing  Cutting
 Grinding and polishing.
 Treatment - toughening, coating.
 Packaging, stacking.

( Patterson, M., (2011). Structural Glass Facades and Enclosures, John Wiley &
Sons, Inc, Hoboken, New Jersey. )
Sheet Process
 Developed by Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in 1920s.
 At 950°C molten glass drawn vertically as continuous ribbon by a series of
rollers in a cast iron tower.

Rolled
Process
 Molten
Glass flow
from the
furnace to
the rolling
machine
along a
canal under
carefully
controlled temperature conditions.
 Forming rollers:
 25cm in diameter
 Bottom roller - engraved with pattern
 Top rollers - smooth
 Final thickness controlled by the gap between the rollers.
 Water coled rollers extract heat from the glass to fix the pattern and to
prevent glass sticking to rollers.
Wired-Glass Process
 Similar to the rolled process
 Machine consist of two independently-driven pairs of water-cooled forming
rollers fed with a ribbon of glass via separate canals from a common melting
tank.
 1st pair of rollers formed a primary ribbon (bottom portion).
 Wire mesh is introduce before 2nd pair of rollers.
 At 2nd pair of rollers - top portion of ribbon is introduced forming the final
ribbon.
 Wire mesh is fed continuously from tolls mounted above the machine.
 The final ribbon is supported by water-cooled steel rollers into the annealing
lehr.
Float process
 Pilkington Industries (1959)
 Produce fire-finish sheet of glass with a perfect flatness.
 Eliminating the time consuming grinding and polishing operations.
 Melting process will take place in the furnace.
 Molten glass will be fed to the float bath.
 Gravity keeps the liquid tin very flat.
 Molten glass will float on molten tin and spread on the surface of molten tin
forming a flat surface.
 Heat applied above the glass surface melts out any irregularities in the glass.
 As the ribbon of glass passed through the float bath - the heat is reduced
until the glass is sufficiently hard to be fed on the annealing lehr.
 After leaving the lehr, glass will be inspected and cut automatically.

You might also like