Chemical Industries Lecture 6 Nawras S.
Sabeeh
Glass Forming
Glass forming is an intermediate stage in glass manufacturing process. It
comes in between glass melting and annealing.
In forming stage of glass manufacturing, viscosity of molten glass changes
gradually with temperature. Glass forming permits molten glass to be shaped
into flat sheets and filaments by controlling the viscosity. For example,
viscosity of the glass must increase slowly as the temperature drops to
produce full lead crystal and the viscosity of the glass must increase rapidly
as the temperature drops to manufacture glass fiber. Depending upon the
applications, there are different processes of forming the glass.
The most common type of glass forming process can be categorized as:
Blowing, rolling, stretching and casting.
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. The Pieces Ware are shaping by the
following methods:
1. Spinning –similar to centrifugal casting of metals
Glass parts such as back sections of cathode ray tubes for TVs and computer
monitors are manufacturing as following:
(1) Gob of glass dropped into mold; and
(2) Rotation of mold to cause spreading of molten glass on mold Surface.
Spinning of funnel-shaped
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Chemical Industries Lecture 6 Nawras S. Sabeeh
2. Pressing- For mass production of flat products such as dishes, bake ware,
and TV tube faceplates
(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.
Pressing of flat glass pieces
3. Press-and-blow–for production of wide-mouth containers such as jars
(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
(4) blown into final shape
Press-and-blow forming sequence
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Chemical Industries Lecture 6 Nawras S. Sabeeh
4. Blow-and-blow- for production of smaller-mouth containers such as
beverage bottles and incandescent light bulbs
(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
(5) Blown to final shape.
Blow-and-blow forming sequence:
5- Casting–for large items such as large astronomical lenses that must cool
very slowly to avoid cracking
•If molten glass is sufficiently fluid, it can be poured into a mold
•Relatively 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.
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Chemical Industries Lecture 6 Nawras S. Sabeeh
Shaping of Flat Glass
Processes for producing flat glass such as sheet and plate glass:
1. 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
Rolling of flat glass
2. Float Process
Molten glass flows onto the 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
The float process for producing sheet glass
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Chemical Industries Lecture 6 Nawras S. Sabeeh
Shaping of Tubular Glass
Danner Process:
Molten glass flows around a rotating hollow mandrel through which air is
blown while the glass is drawn
Drawing of glass tubes by the Danner process
Forming of Glass Fibers
1. Centrifugal spraying Process- to Produce Fibrous glass for thermal
insulation, acoustical insulation, and air filtration, in which the fibers are in a
random, wool-like condition
• 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
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Chemical Industries Lecture 6 Nawras S. Sabeeh
2. Drawing Process- Long continuous filaments suitable for fiber reinforced
plastics, yarns, fabrics, and fiber optics
Continuous glass fibers of small diameter (lower limit is about 0.0025 mm)
are produced by drawing (pulling) strands of molten glass through small
orifices in a heated plate made of a platinum alloy
Drawing of continuous glass fibers
Properties of glass
Following are the properties exhibited by glass.
1. Capacity to absorb different colors without effecting transparency.
2. Hardness.
3. Chemically inert.
4. High refractive index
5. Amorphous
6. Brittleness
7. Transparency and translucence
8. Dispersion.
9. Nitrification.
10. Electrical insulators
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