About Glass Fabricators and Glass Fabricator Services
Including: Glass
Blowing,
Glass
Cutting, Glass Tube, Precision Optics, Specialty Glasses,
Tempered
Glass & Textured
Glass.
Glass fabricators are any manufacturers
involved in the fabrication of glass in any form. Glass fabricator services
use the process of forming glass to any specified shape while heated. Float
glass is the most common form of fabricated glass. The molten glass coming
from the furnace at a temperature of 1050°C (1,922°F) is shaped at
the approximate temperature range of 650 - 1,050óC. The essential
raw materials of glass include silica (sand), soda, limestone and dolomite,
silica being the major ingredient. Less common raw materials are sodium sulphate,
coal dust and cullet. These materials are often molded into sheets of glass
to be tempered later.
Other glass fabricator services use processes that provide different preferred
characteristics like thermal, aesthetic, acoustic, mechanical or electrical.
Mechanical reinforcement through chemical or thermal tempering creates tempered
safety glass. Alterations of the raw ingredients provide special glasses, tinted
glass and glass ceramics. Surface processing like sanding or polishing creates
glass for interior decorating. Combining glass with other materials produces
composites like laminated glass for safety benefits, resin glass for acoustic
insulation and gel glasses for fire resistance. Coating the glass provides
many benefits as well, like mirrors, enameled glass, tinted glass and energy
saving glass. There is also a specialized coating of electron material that
is microns thin, which is found in glass required for electronic applications.
Quartz glass is composed almost entirely of pure silica and is utilized in
various technology applications.
Much modern glass is manufactured for other performance reasons, such as to
limit the amount of light, and therefore heat, which passes through. Reflective
glass is created by the addition of a thin layer of metal or metallic oxide
on the surface of the glass. This glass is used in many large commercial buildings
and skyscrapers. With its mirror-like appearance, it both reflects and absorbs
the amount of solar radiation allowed to enter the building itself. This can
lead to tremendous savings in climate control costs. Low emissivity glass is
a type of reflective glass, which reduces heat loss indoors as well as provides
UV protection to guard against carpet and other furnishing damage. Insulating
glass is made from two or more layers of glass separated by a sealed air space.
This space reduces moisture from condensation and certain levels of noise.
When looking for glass fabricators it is important to consider things like
size, especially the thickness, safety and aesthetic issues and whether bent
glass is needed. The pharmaceutical and research and development sectors of
industries rely on the use of testing glass such as vials and beakers. When
a glass product for a technological or laboratory application is used, clarity
and purity are important factors. Glass fabricators often specialize in only
one or two types of glass. Being aware of their range and area of specialization
will ensure quality product and services.
Types of Glass Fabricators
- is
glassware shaped and created by air pressure; this has commonly been
done by mouth in the past or by compressed air through a metal pipe.
Pieces are often made in mass quantities such as bottles, via a highly
automated system, which both moves and injects air into the glass gob
to form the finished piece.
- is any glass object decorated by cutting or grinding facets
and is for purely decorative purposes, like decorative plates or other
assorted knick knacks.
- is
a wider classification of glass that includes wired and tempered glass.
The main processes by which flat glass is made are the rolled and float
glass procedures: rolled glass is made when a continuous stream of molten
glass is poured between water-cooled rollers, while the float glass
process is the most widely used process and consists of the glass being
held in a chemically controlled atmosphere at a high temperature for
a long enough time for the surface to become flat and parallel.
- is the process of shaping glass with air.
- includes various methods, including diamond saw cutting, thermal or hot cutting, score and break cutting, and laser cutting.
- are long, cylinder-shaped pieces of glass.
- is a cylinder made of glass material.
-
is exposed to a heating and cooling cycle and is typically doubly strong
as standard annealed float glass of equal measurements. Breakage
of this glass results in larger pieces than with completely tempered
glass.
- offer superior clarity and precision to meet the very specific demanding needs for high-tech lenses, prisms, medical internal visual systems, etc.
-
is the result of melted silica, and it can resist extreme or quickly
changing temperatures and is typically transparent to ultraviolet radiation.
This product is utilized in fiber optics, analytical instruments, semiconductor
technologies and casting processes.
- include any number of glass products fabricated for specific purposes, including bent, bulletproof, silk screened and colored glass and glass parts for industrial and commercial uses.
-
is a type of safety glass that is heat treated and approximately five
times stronger than similarly measured glass standard annealed float
glass; breakage results in small, rectangular-like pieces, beneficial
for general and safety glazing like storm doors, building entrances,
sliding doors and bath and shower doors.
- is a product with various patterned and uneven surfaces.
- is
created by inserting a wire mesh into sheets of glass, which has
a resistance to impact forces like normal glass,
but
wire holds broken pieces in place. This has customarily been
accepted as inexpensive fire safety glass.
Glass Fabricators Terms
-
The procedure of controlling the cooling of glass in the manufacturing
of float glass; doing it in a lehr prevents residual pressures in the
glass. Annealed glass from the manufacturer typically has a breaking strength
of 500psi.
- An apparatus
in the float glass production line subsequent to the tin bath and prior
to the cooling conveyor, which controls the cooling and heating. It relieves
pressure from the flat glass product to permit ordinary cold end-of-line
processing.
- Blocks of
elastomer that restrict lateral movements of glass as it travels through
the glazing channel caused by seismic, thermal, building movement, wind
load effects or any other applicable force.
- A container using
heat and extreme pressure in the glass industry that creates a bond between
glass and PVB or urethane sheet, resulting in laminated glass.
- A glass product
that has been shaped from a flat shape into the desired curved shape during
the molten state.
- The procedure of
putting a bevel edge on finished cut glass.
- An imperfection in
flat glass that is a bend, curve or any other alteration.
- Imperfections that
occur in laminated glass as a pocket of air or gas between the interlayer
and the glass. The parameter is any inclusion higher than .8 mm (1/32")
in diameter in float glass.
-
The strengthening of glass through ion-exchange to create a compressive
pressure layer at the treated surface.
- A flaw resulting
from breakage of tiny pieces off of the edge of cut glass; typically,
it is only significant for heat absorbing glass.
- Waste or broken glass.
Can often be remolded for later use.
- Float glass
that measures approximately three mm thick (1/8").
- A protrusion on the
edge of a lite of glass.
- A general term
that describes float glass, sheet glass, plate glass and rolled glass.
- Glass formed on
a bath of molten tin. The surface in contact with the tin is known as
the tin surface or tin side. The top surface is known as the atmosphere
surface or air side.
- The portion of hot glass
delivered by a feeder or gathered on a punty or a pipe.
- Glass
designed to absorb significant quantities of solar energy.
- The bonding
of two or more panes of glass (lites) with one or more interlayers; the
interlayer is composed of plastic. The glass lites could be various colors
and thicknesses, mirrored or stenciled, and the intermediary plastic material
choices are many depending on the preferred effect.
- An industry term for
pane of glass, spelled differently to differentiate from perceptible light.
- The left-over glass remaining
on a punty or blowpipe after a piece has been completed and cut off.
- Wire
glass with both sides polished and ground.
- A device to which ware
is attached for holding during fire polishing or finishing.
- Glass that is
composed almost entirely of silica.
- The mark on a glass surface
resulting from joint of matching mold parts.
- A reference to the
degree of enduring stress found in annealed glass.