Glass Industries
Glass Industries
Pot furnace
For small production of special glasses
Employed in the manufacture of optical and art glass
Melting
Tank furnace
Batch materials are charged in the “tank”
The tank is built with refractory blocks
Has dimensions 38x9x1.5 m
Can be classified as day tanks and regenerative tanks
Shaping and Molding
Fourcault process
Pilkington process
Glass blowing
Danner process
Fourcault process
Done for window glass
Uses debiteuse
Fourcault process
The debiteuse is slightly submerged in the glass
The metal bait is lowered as the debiteuse is submerged,
drawing the glass upward.
The glass is initially cooled with the adjacent water coils
As it travels, it passes through a lehr, about 7.5 m tall
It is cut and sent to cutting and grading
Operates at 1500˚C
Pilkington process
Float glass
High quality flat glass or plate glass
Developed by Pilkington brothers in England
Pilkington process
Melting and Refining
Raw materials are mixed to make a batch
Flows to furnace at 1500˚C
Pilkington process
Float bath
Glass from furnace gently flows over the refractory spout
Passes through the mirror-like surface of molten tin
It enters at 1100˚C and exits at 600˚C as solid ribbon
Pilkington process
Coating
Additional process for reflective glass
Metal coatings are added
Annealing
It undergoes heat treatment in a lehr
Inspection
Inspection for impurities in the glass
Pilkington process
Cutting
Diamond wheels trim off selvedge – stressed edges – and cut
the ribbon to size dictated by computer.
Glass blowing
One of the most ancient arts and technique
Casting operation
Directing molten glass into a mold where it solidifies
Parisons
Partly formed bottle or bottle blanks
Has two types
1. Suction-feed type
2. Gob-feed type
Glass blowing
Suction-feed type
Molten glass is contained in a shallow, circular revolving tank
Drawn up to the molds by suction
The mold swings away from the surface, opens, and drops
away leaving the parison sustained by the neck
Bottle mold rises into position
Blast of compressed air causes the glass to flow in the mold
Glass blowing
Gob-feed type
The glass is cut into a gob by mechanical shears
The gobs goes through troughs in which they proceed in to
the mold
Glass blowing
Gob-feed type
Has Parison mold and Blow table
Parison mold
Molds the neck of the glass
Molded by the Settle blow
Counter blow prepares the
parison for the blow mold
Glass blowing
Blow table
the body is molded
The Final blow molds the body of the glass
Glass Blowing
Danner process
Used for glass tubing
Glass flow falls onto a rotating, slightly downward pointing
mandrel
Air is blown in the middle of the mandrel
a pair of belts grips the tubing and draw it at uniform speed
Annealing
It is necessary to anneal all glass products
It relieves the stress in the glass by letting it
undergo heat treatment in a long furnace also
known as the lehr
Annealing
Lehr
Known as the annealing oven
It is like a heat chamber which the rate of
cooling can be controlled to meet
foregoing requirements
Finishing
Cleaning Sandblasting
Grinding Enameling
Polishing Grading
Cutting Gaging
All annealed glasses must undergo one or
more certain finishing
Special glass manufacture
Most common
Colored and coated glass
Safety glasses
Special glass manufacture
Colored and coated glasses
Mixed with various compounds to alter the absorption of light
frequency of the the glass
NiO and CoO gives gray tint
SeO gives bronze tint
Fe2O3 gives green tint
CoO gives blue tint
Special glass manufacture
Safety glass
Laminated safety glasses – 2 sheets of glass + 1 sheet of non
brittle plastic
Tempered glasses – involves controlled annealing (non-uniform
stresses turns to controlled, uniform, low-level stresses). Strong
in compression, weak in tension
HAZARDS
Hazards
Thermal hazards
Cutting hazards
Respiratory hazards
Manufacturers of glass
The Flat Glass Alliance of the Philippines Inc.
References
Austin. G.T. (1984). Shreve's Chemical Process lndustries, 5th ed.
McGraw Hill International
Edition