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 How glass is made
We all know that Sand is used to make glass, combined with limestone and dolomite which act as stabilisers and a fluxing agent called Soda Ash, these materials are fed into the furnace for melting along with cullet, (off-cuts collected from glass processing sites) to a temperature of 1500 degrees.
The float tank invented by Pilkington's is a bath of molten tin which lies perfectly flat and level.
The glass is drawn across the surface at different speeds which create the required thickness.
A float tank runs for a minimum of 5 years 24 hours a day 7 days a week and produces 1 km of glass per hour.
Body Tinted Glass
By adding small quantities of metal oxides to the raw material during the float glass production it is possible to produce body tinted glass. Clear float glass looks green when viewed edge . This is because of iron oxide naturally present in the raw materials used. If extra iron oxide is added this produces Green (if reduced the iron oxide content of is produced Optiwhite. Adding cobalt oxide produces Optifloat Grey and selenium oxide produces Optifloat Bronze. These quantities have to be very closely monitored so that a consistent tint is obtained that will match from batch to batch. These products used to be known as Antisun.
Pattern Glass
Textured or pattern glass is made using the continuous rolling process. The semi-molten glass is then squeezed between a pair of metal rollers to produce a ribbon with controlled thickness and surface pattern impregnated from the roller.
See examples of Pilkington Textured glass patterns  by clicking the
button
Surface coatings
Adding a metallic coating during the float glass process produces a glass specially designed to reduce heat loss through a window.
Energy from the sun passes through the
glass, then the coating acts as a barrier keeping the heat in.
Laminates
Laminated Glass is made up of two or more layers of ordinary glass bonded together with one or more interlayers of an extremely strong material poly vinyl butylel PVB it looks the same as ordinary glass, but is very difficult to break so prevents would be burglars getting in even after repeated blows it also insulates you from outside noise and prevents colours from fading in your upholstery and curtains.
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