GLASSWORKING

1. Raw Materials Preparation and Melting

2. Shaping Processes in Glassworking
3. Heat Treatment and Finishing
4. Product Design Considerations
 Glass: Overview of the Material
 Glass is one of three basic types of ceramics
 The others are traditional ceramics and new
ceramics
 Glass is distinguished by its noncrystalline
(vitreous) structure
 The other ceramic materials have a
crystalline structure
 Glass Products
 Glass products are commercially produced in
an almost unlimited variety of shapes
 Most products made in very large quantities:
 Light bulbs, beverage bottles, jars, light
bulbs
 Window glass
 Glass tubing (e.g., for fluorescent lighting)
 Glass fibers
 Other products are made individually:
 Giant telescope lenses
 Shaping Methods for Glass
 Methods for shaping glass are quite different
from those for traditional and new ceramics
 In glassworking, the principal starting material
is silica, usually combined with other oxide
ceramics that form glasses
 Process sequence in shaping glass:
 Starting material is heated to transform it
from a hard solid into a viscous liquid
 It is then shaped while in this fluid condition
 When cooled and hard, the material remains
in the glassy state rather than crystallizing
Process Sequence in Glassworking
Figure 12.1 The typical process sequence in glassworking:
(1) preparation of raw materials and melting,
(2) shaping, and
(3) heat treatment.
Raw Materials Preparation and Melting
 The principal component in nearly all glasses is
silica (SiO2)
 Primary source is natural quartz in sand
 Other components are added in proportions to
achieve the desired composition:
 Soda ash (source of Na2O), limestone
(source of CaO), aluminum oxide (Al2O3),
and potash (source of K2O),
 Recycled glass is usually added to the
mixture too
 Glass Melting
 The batch of starting materials to be melted is
called a charge, and loading it into the furnace
is called charging the furnace
 Melting temperatures for glass are around
1500C to 1600C (2700F to 2900F)
 Viscosity of molten glass is inversely related to
temperature
 Since shaping immediately follows melting,
the temperature at which the glass is tapped
depends on the viscosity required for the
shaping process
Shaping Processes in Glassworking
 Shaping processes to fabricate glass products
can be grouped into three categories:
1. Discrete processes for piece ware (bottles,
jars, plates, light bulbs)
2. Continuous processes for making flat glass
(sheet and plate glass) and tubing
(laboratory ware, fluorescent lights)
3. Fiber-making processes to produce fibers
(for insulation and fiber optics)
 Shaping of Piece Ware
 Ancient methods of hand-working glass
included glass blowing
 Handicraft methods are still used today for
making glassware items of high value in small
quantities
 However, most modern glass shaping
processes are highly mechanized technologies
for producing discrete pieces such as jars,
bottles, and light bulbs in high quantities
 Piece Ware Shaping Processes
 Spinning – similar to centrifugal casting of
metals
 Pressing – mass production of flat products
such as dishes and TV tube faceplates
 Press-and-blow –production of wide-mouth
containers such as jars
 Blow-and-blow - production of smaller-mouth
containers such as beverage bottles and
incandescent light bulbs
 Casting – large items such as astronomical
lenses that must cool slowly to avoid cracking
 Spinning

Figure 12.2 Spinning of funnel-shaped glass parts such as

back sections of cathode ray tubes for TVs and
computer monitors: (1) gob of glass dropped into mold;
and (2) rotation of mold to cause spreading of molten
glass on mold surface.
 Pressing

Figure 12.3 Pressing of flat glass pieces: (1) glass gob is

fed into mold from furnace; (2) pressing into shape by
plunger; and (3) plunger is retracted and finished product
is removed (symbols v and F indicate motion (velocity)
and applied force).
 Press-and-Blow

Figure 12.4 Press-and-blow forming sequence: (1) molten gob is fed

into mold cavity; (2) pressing to form a parison; (3) the partially
formed parison, held in a neck ring, is transferred to the blow
mold, and (4) blown into final shape.
 Blow-and-Blow

Figure 12.5 Blow-and-blow forming sequence: (1) gob is fed into

inverted mold cavity; (2) mold is covered; (3) first blowing
step; (4) partially formed piece is reoriented and transferred to
second blow mold, and (5) blown to final shape.
 Casting
 If molten glass is sufficiently fluid, it can be
poured into a mold
 Massive objects, such as astronomical lenses
and mirrors, are made by this method
 After cooling and solidifying, the piece must be
finished by lapping and polishing
 Casting of glass is not often used except for
special jobs
 Smaller lenses are usually made by pressing
Shaping of Flat and Tubular Glass
 Processes for producing flat glass such as
sheet and plate glass:
 Rolling of flat plate
 Float process
 Process for producing glass tubes
 Danner process
 Rolling of Flat Plate

Starting glass from melting furnace is squeezed

through opposing rolls whose gap determines
sheet thickness, followed by grinding and
polishing for parallelism and smoothness

Figure 12.6 Rolling of flat glass

 Float Process
Molten glass flows onto surface of a molten tin
bath, where it spreads evenly across the surface,
achieving a uniform thickness and smoothness -
no grinding or polishing is needed

Figure 12.7 The float process for producing sheet glass

 Danner Process
Molten glass flows around a rotating hollow mandrel
through which air is blown while glass is drawn

Figure 12.8 Drawing of glass tubes by the Danner process.

 Forming of Glass Fibers
Glass fiber products fall into two categories, with
different production methods for each:
1. Fibrous glass for thermal insulation, acoustical
insulation, and air filtration, in which the fibers
are in a random, wool-like condition
 Produced by centrifugal spraying
2. Long continuous filaments suitable for fiber
reinforced plastics, yarns, fabrics, and fiber
optics
 Produced by drawing
 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
 Drawing of Glass

Continuous glass fibers of

small diameter (lower
limit ~ 0.0025 mm) are
produced by pulling
strands of molten glass
through small orifices in
a heated plate made of
a platinum alloy

Figure 12.9 Drawing of continuous

glass fibers
Heat Treatment: Annealing of Glass
Heating to elevated temperature and holding to
eliminate stresses and temperature gradients;
then slow cooling to suppress stress formation,
then more rapid cooling to room temperature
 Annealing temperatures are ~ 500C (900F)
 Annealing has the same function in
glassworking as in metalworking – to relieve
stresses
 Annealing is performed in tunnel-like furnaces,
called lehrs, in which the products flow slowly
through the hot chamber on conveyors
 Tempering of Glass
Heating to a temperature somewhat above
annealing temperature into the plastic range,
followed by quenching of surfaces, usually by
air jets
 When the surfaces cool, they contract and
harden while interior is still plastic
 As the internal glass cools, it contracts, putting
the hard surfaces in compression
 Tempered glass is more resistant to scratching
and breaking due to compressive stresses on
its surfaces
 Products: windows for tall buildings, all-glass
doors, safety glasses
Case Study: Automobile Windshields

 When tempered glass fails, it shatters into

many small fragments
 Automobile windshields are not made of
tempered glass, due to the danger posed by
this fragmentation
 Instead, conventional glass is used; 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
 Finishing Operations on Glass

 Operations include grinding, polishing, and

cutting
 Glass sheets often must be ground and
polished to remove surface defects and scratch
marks and to make opposite sides parallel
 In pressing and blowing with split dies,
polishing is often used to remove seam marks
from the product
 Cutting of continuous sections of tube and
plate is done by first scoring the glass with a
glass-cutting wheel or cutting diamond and
then breaking the section along the score line
 Other Finishing Operations
 Decorative and surface processes performed
on certain glassware products include:
 Mechanical cutting and polishing operations;
and sandblasting
 Chemical etching (with hydrofluoric acid,
often in combination with other chemicals)
 Coating (e.g., coating of plate glass with
aluminum or silver to produce mirrors)
Product Design Considerations - I
 Glass is transparent and has optical properties
that are unusual if not unique among
engineering materials
 For applications requiring transparency, light
transmittance, magnification, and similar
optical properties, glass is likely to be the
material of choice
 Certain polymers are transparent and may be
competitive, depending on design
requirements
Product Design Considerations - II
 Glass is much stronger in compression than
tension
 Components should be designed to be
subjected to compressive stresses, not
tensile stresses
 Glass is brittle
 Glass parts should not be used in
applications that involve impact loading or
high stresses that might cause fracture
Product Design Considerations - III
 Certain glass compositions have very low
thermal expansion coefficients and can tolerate
thermal shock
 These glasses should be selected for
applications where this characteristic is
important
 Design outside edges and corners with large
radii and inside corners with large radii, to avoid
points of stress concentration
 Threads may be included in glass parts
 However, the threads should be coarse