Glass Fabricators

About Glass Fabricators and Glass Fabricator Services Including: Glass Blowing, Glass Cutting, Glass Rods, Glass Tube, Tempered Glass & Textured Glass.

Glass fabricators and glass fabricator services are any manufacturer 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.

Transparent Glass	Wire Glass
Glass Fabricators and Glass Fabricator Services Images Provided by Torstenson Glass Company

Glass Fabricators and Glass Fabricator Services Image Provided by S&S Optical Company

Types of Glass Fabricators

• Blown glass 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.
  
• Cut glass is any glass object decorated by cutting or grinding facets and is for purely decorative purposes, like decorative plates or other assorted knick knacks.
  
• Flat glass 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.
  
• Glass blowing is the process of shaping glass with air.
  
• Glass cutting includes various methods, including diamond saw cutting, thermal or hot cutting, score and break cutting, and laser cutting.
  
• Glass rods are long, cylinder-shaped pieces of glass.
  
• Glass tube is a cylinder made of glass material.
  
• Heat strengthened glass 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.
  
• Quartz glass 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.
  
• Tempered glass 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.
  
• Textured glass is a product with various patterned and uneven surfaces.
  
• Wired glass 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

Annealing – 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.
 
Annealing Lehr – 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.
                                                                                             
Anti-Walk Blocks – 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.  
 
Autoclave – 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.
 
Bent Glass – A glass product that has been shaped from a flat shape into the desired curved shape during the molten state.
 
Beveling – The procedure of putting a bevel edge on finished cut glass.
 
Bow/Warp – An imperfection in flat glass that is a bend, curve or any other alteration.
 
Bubbles – 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.
 
Chemically Strengthened Glass – The strengthening of glass through ion-exchange to create a compressive pressure layer at the treated surface.
 
Chipped Edge – A flaw resulting from breakage of tiny pieces off of the edge of cut glass; typically, it is only significant for heat absorbing glass.
 
Cullet – Waste or broken glass. Can often be remolded for later use.
 
Double Strength – Float glass that measures approximately three mm thick (1/8”).
 
Flare – A protrusion on the edge of a lite of glass.
 
Flat Glass – A general term that describes float glass, sheet glass, plate glass and rolled glass.
 
Float 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.
 
Gob – The portion of hot glass delivered by a feeder or gathered on a punty or a pipe.
 
Heat Absorbing Glass – Glass designed to absorb significant quantities of solar energy.
 
Laminated Glass – 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.
 
Lite – An industry term for pane of glass, spelled differently to differentiate from perceptible light.
 
Moil – The left-over glass remaining on a punty or blowpipe after a piece has been completed and cut off.
 
Polished Wired Glass – Wire glass with both sides polished and ground.
 
Punty – A device to which ware is attached for holding during fire polishing or finishing.
 
Quartz Glass – Glass that is composed almost entirely of silica.
 
Seam – The mark on a glass surface resulting from joint of matching mold parts.
 
Temper – A reference to the degree of enduring stress found in annealed glass.