The making of glass

Noeh O. Fernandez Jr., OD, MATS

 History

• Glass making is one of the oldest industries

known to man.
• It is known that the industry has been
established in Egypt and Phoenecia by 1500
BC
• Glass at first valued chiefly for purposes of
decoration, for making objects of art, and
was possessed only by the rich
 History cont...

• Not until 1807 that a method of manufacturing

good optical glass was discovered
• The first successful glass factory was
established in France and its first useful
application on any large scale was in making
astronomical telescopes
• In the US, the glass industry came to
Jamestown Virginia in 1607 with Capt. John
Smith
 History cont...

• William Bausch of Bausch and Lomb

pioneered the making of glass of fair quality
in 1912
• It took 3 more years of experimenting
before glass of real fine quality was
manufactured in 1915.
Raw materials
 Raw materials

• Sand
• Soda
• Other chemicals
 RAW Materials for making glass

• Sand - high purity and small size of grain.

The iron content of the sand, which is one
of the impurities, must therefore be less
than two parts of every 10,000 parts of sand
– Sand of such quality as obtained from deposits
of easily broken sandstone known as Oriskany
Quartzite which was laid down under wind-
blown desert conditions - such sand is pure and
white, and remarkably uniform in size of grain.
It makes high quality glass
 Raw materials cont...

• SODA
• Other chemicals - Sodium carbonate,
Calcium carbonate, Barium carbonate, Lead
oxide, Boric acid, Antimony, Silica etc.
Types of glass for ophthalmic
purposes
 Types of glass for ophthalmic
purposes

• Ophthalmic Crown/Ordinary crown

• Barium Crown
• Borosilicate Crown
• Flint Glass
• Baryta Flint
• Photochromic Lenses
• Selective Absorption Lenses
 Ophthalmic Crown/ Ordinary
Crown

• Most often used type

• Contains about 70% sand, 11%-13% Lime
(CaO), 15% Soda (Na2O) with small
amounts of potassium, borax, arsenic, and
antimony, to improve quality of the product
 Barium Crown

• Contains about 35% barium oxide, 30%

silica and small percentages of lime, zinc,
alumina, boron, antimony, and zirconium.
• The effect of barium oxide is to increase the
relative index of the glass without greatly
increasing the mean dispersion
 Flint Glass

• Contains 60% lead oxide, 30% silica, 8%

soda and potash and small percentages of
arsenic and antimony.
• The effect of lead content is to increase the
index of the glass but at the same time it
also increases the mean dispersion and
density
 Baryta Flint

• 40 to 65% barium, 25% silica, 7 to 10%

sodium and potash
 Refractive
Refractive
GLASS Effeciency Density
Index
(Nu Value)
Ophthalmic Crown 1.523 58 2.54
Dense Barium Crown 1.623 56 3.71
Dense Flint 1.626 35 3.66
Barium Flint 1.605 43 3.48
Dense Barium Flint 1.654 41 3.52
Baryta (B and L) 1.664 42 2.81
High-Lite (Schott) 1.701 31 2.99
Photogray (light) 1.523 59.4 2.54
Photogray extra 1.523 58.9 2.41
Photobrown extra 1.523 2.42

The higher the Nu value, the better the glass from an

optical point of view
 Photochromic Lenses

• A glass which darkens automatically in bright

sunlight and lightens automatically indoors
• Contains microscopic crystals of silver halides
which are decomposed by the long UV
radiation into Silver and halogen.
• Influenced by its recent exposure duration of
the current exposure, spectral distribution of
the incident radiation, temperature of the lens
 Photochromic Lenses

• Glasses that darkens automatically in bright

sunlight (activated by UV radiations) and
lightens automatically indoors
• Introduced in 1964
• Contains microscopic crystals of silver
hallides which are decomposed by UV
radiations into silver and halogen
 Photochromics cont...

• They are influenced by the ff factors:

– Its recent exposure history
– Duration of current exposure
– Spectral distribution of the incident radiation
– Temperature of lens
 Selective Absorption Lenses

• Colored and selective absorption glasses are

made by adding appropriate metallic oxides
to the raw materials for clear crown glass
• Protection from various types of radiations
is rendered in addition of the metallic
oxides which result in certain tints
Selective absorption lenses cont..

• Examples of metallic oxides commonly

used are:
– Didymium oxide (Pink)
– Cerium oxide (Pinkish-brown)
– Iron oxide (green)
– Uranium oxide (yellow)
– Balanced quantities of Iron, Cobalt and Nickel
oxides (gray)
 Stages of manufacturing of
OPHTHALMIC LENSES

• Preparation of the melting pot

• Preparation of the batch (ingredients)
– this consist of sand and flux usually in some
form of alkali together with any other
ingredients, necessary to produce the particular
type of glass wanted to the batch is added
“Cullet”, a broken piece of glass from previous
melt in order to speed up melting process
 Stages cont...

• Melting process
– the pot with the raw materials is placed in the
melting furnace. The temperature is gradually
raised to the melting point known as the
“Changing process”. The temperature is raised
from 1,500 to 2,000 degrees Celsius.
• Stirring the batch
– A large mechanically operated rod moves
circularly around the edge of the pot to remove
bubbles and impurities
 Stages cont...

• Fining
– a vigorous boiling process altered by the
addition of water, ammonium nitrate, or arsenic
oxide to speed up the release of bubbles from
the chemical reaction to the fusion
• Pouring and rolling into sheets
– The melt is poured upon a large iron table
where it is rolled into sheets of the required
thickness. This is about 3/8 of an inch
 Stages cont...

• Annealing
– The rolled glass sheets is placed in another
furnace called lehr where temperature is raised
and lowered gradually. This is done to remove
the strain in the glass (6-8 hours)
• Cutting of the Sheets into squares and
checking of the quality
 Stages cont...

• Molding into Blanks

– the squares are molded into blanks having the
approximate curves to which the lenses were to
be ground. Such lenses are known as “Drop or
Molded Blanks” of base curve +/- 6.00 D
• Final Annealing
– The molded blanks are placed back in the
furnace to remove the strain produced in
molding
Optical Defects/Qualities of a
good lens or glass
 Optical defects
• Striae • Hardness
• Bubbles • Expansion
• Stones • Waves
• Milkiness and Fog
• Strain
• Color
 Striae

• Fine streaks of veins of glass of different

compositions occuring within the glass
itself
• appearance of fine hairlines
• Causes: insufficient mixing and stirring of
the raw materials during the melting
operation
 Bubbles

• When raw materials are melted, bubbles are

formed like O2, N2, CO2, Carbon
monoxide, steam, water vapor. These must
be removed as part of fining process
• Cause: improper stirring and fining
 Stones/Inclusions

• Foreign solids in finished glass

• Cause: raw materials failed to melt
completely, small pieces of the clay melting
pot broke loose.
 Milkiness and fog (surface)
• Milkiness can be characterized by hazy appearance
and cloudiness of the glass which decreases
transparency
• Fog is a form of milkiness. It is a term applied to the
chemical decomposition and/or surface crystallization
of the glasses used in the fused bifocals.
• Cause of milkiness: impure chemicals used in batch, it
may result from molding fusing
• Cause of fogs: formation of fine crystals in the
surfaces of the glass
 Strain

• 6 to 8 hours of carefully controlled

temperature reduction are required to
complete the annealing of a batch of optical
glass
• Cause: improper annealing produced strains
from too rapid cooling
• Solution: reheat the glass blanks or plates
 Color

• Optical glass should have a high degree of

transparency and should be free from color
• To obtain this, pure raw materials should be
used to resist corrosive action of molten
glass controlling all steps in the
manufacturing process, correct proportions
of the appropriate chemicals
 Hardiness

• Glasses should be hard and tough enough to

give good service and not shatter, break or
scratch in ordinary use
 Expansion

• Different glasses must have this

characteristics identical or nearly so
otherwise strain would develop at the lines
of fusion especially in bifocals
 Waves

• Caused by low grade ingredient and by

impurities that cannot be resolved by
stirring and mixing
Desirable characteristics of glass

• Homogeneity in both chemical composition

and physical state
• Correct index of refraction and chromatic
dispersion values
• Freedom from color
• High degree of transparency
• High degree of chemical and physical
stability
 FOR NEXT MEETING

• Prepare for a quiz on the first two

discussions