CHE 410 GLASS INDUSTRY (7)

Engr. Lina D. dela Cruz

Chemical Engineering Department
Technological Institute of the Philippines
GLASS INDUSTRIES
Glass has three important properties that have made it
indispensable as a building material in modern
civilization: its hardness, its transparency, and)ts
chemical resistance.
To these should be added refractive and dispersive powers,
compressive and tensile strengths, as well as coefficient
of expansion.
Whatever has been done in recent years to extend
the usefulness of glass has depended largely upon the
ability of the glass technologist to vary and control these
essential properties, particularly the three first named.
Uses and Economics
MANUFACTURE
Glass may be defined: physically as a rigid, undercooled
liquid having no definite melting point and a
sufficiently high viscosity (greater than
10 poises) to prevent crystallization; chemically at the
union of the non-volatile inorganic oxides resulting
from the decomposition and fusing of the alkali and
alkaline earth compounds, sand, and other glass
constituents. Glass is a completely vitrified product or
at least such a product with a relatively small amount
of nonvitreous material in suspension.
Composition.
In spite of hundreds of new developments in glass during the
past thirty years, it is worthy of note that lime, silica, and
soda still form over 90 per :cent of all the glass of the world,
just as they did 2,000 years ago.
It should not be inferred that there have been no important
changes in composition during this period. Rather, there
have been minor changes in major ingredients or major
changes in minor ingredients.
The major ingredients are sand, lime, and soda ,ash, and any
other raw materials may be considered to be minor
ingredients, even though the effects produced may be of
major importance.
In general, commercial glasses fall into six different classes:
1. Vitreous silica-a glass made by fusing pure silica without a flux, and
very resistant thermally and chemically.
2. Alkali silicates-soluble glasses used only as solutions.
3. Lime glass-the soda-lime-silica glass of such wide applications, for
win-dows, transparent fixtures, and all manner of containers.
4. Lead glass-the product obtained from lead oxide, silica, and alkali for
decorative and optical effects.
5. Borosilicate glass-boric oxide and silica glasses for optical and
scientific work.
6. Special glass-such as colored glass, translucent glass, safety and
laminated glassfiber glass, photosensitive glass, phosphate glass, and
specialties for chemical uses.
Vitreous silica, sometimes referred to erroneously as
quartz glass, is the end member of the silicate glasses.
It is characterized by low expansion and high softening
point, which impart high thermal resistance and permit
this to be used beyond the temperature ranges of other
glasses.
This glass is also extraordinarily transparent to
ultraviolet radiation.
The alkali silicates are the only two-component glasses
of commercial importance. These are water-soluble.
The sand and soda ash are simply
melted together and the products designated as sodium
silicates, having a range of composition from
Na20·Si02 to Na20·4Si02•
Lime glass represents by far the largest tonnage of glass
made today and serves for the manufacture of
containers of all kinds, flat glass (win-dow, plate, wire
and figured), tumblers and tableware. There has been a
general betterment in the physical quality of all flat
glass such as increased flatness and freedom from
waves and strains, but the composition has not varied
greatly.
This composition as a rule lies between the following
limits:' (1) Si02, 69 to 72 per cent, (2) CaO, 12.5 to
13.5 per cent, (3) Na20, 13 to 15 per cent, because
products of these
ratios do not melt too high and are sufficiently viscous so
that they do not devitrify and yet are not too viscous to
be workable at reasonable temperatures.
Lead glasses are of very great importance in optical
work because of their high index of refraction and high
dispersion. Lead contents as high as 92 per cent
(density 8.0, refractive index 2.2) have been made. The
brilliancy of good "cut glass" is due to its lead-bearing
composition.
Large quantities are used also for the construction of
electric light bulbs, neon-sign tubing, and radiotrons,
because of the high electrical resistance of the glass.
The special glasses include
(1) colored glass,
(2) translucent glass,
(3) safety or laminated glass,
(4) fiber glass,
(5) high-silica glass,
(6) photo-sensitive glass, and
(7) phosphate and borate glasses.