The three major types of flat glass are the following:

Sheet glass is fabricated by drawing the molten glass from a furnace

(drawn glass), or by forming a cylinder, dividing it lengthwise, and

flattening it (cylinder glass). The fire-polished surfaces are not

perfectly parallel, resulting in some distortion of vision. To minimize

this distortion, glass should be glazed with the wave distortion

running horizontally.

Plate glass is formed by rolling molten glass into a plate that is

subsequently ground and polished after cooling. Plate glass

provides virtually clear, undistorted vision.

Float glass is manufactured by pouring molten glass onto a surface of

molten tin and allowing it to cool slowly. The resulting flat,

parallel surfaces minimize distortion and eliminate the need for

grinding and polishing. Float glass is the successor to plate glass

and accounts for the majority of flat-glass production.

Other types of glass include the following:

• Annealed glass is cooled slowly to relieve internal stresses.

• Heat-strengthened glass is annealed glass that is partially

tempered by a process of reheating and sudden cooling. Heat-

strengthened glass has about twice the strength of annealed glass

of the same thickness.

• Tempered glass is annealed glass that is reheated to just below the

softening point and then rapidly cooled to induce compressive

stresses in the surfaces and edges of the glass and tensile stresses

in the interior. Tempered glass has three to five times the resistance

of annealed glass to impact and thermal stresses but cannot be