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Float glass is a sheet of glass made by floating molten glass on a bed of molten metal of a low melting point, typically tin, [1] although lead was used for the process in the past. [2] This method gives the sheet uniform thickness and a very flat surface. [ 3 ]
Most float glass is soda–lime glass, but relatively minor quantities of special borosilicate [10] and flat panel display glass are also produced using the float glass process. [11] The float glass process is also known as the Pilkington process, [12] named after the British glass manufacturer Pilkington, who pioneered the technique (invented ...
Machine drawn cylinder sheet was the first mechanical method for "drawing" window glass. Cylinders of glass 40 feet (12 m) high are drawn vertically from a circular tank. The glass is then annealed and cut into 7 to 10 foot (2 to 3 m) cylinders. These are cut lengthways, reheated, and flattened. This process was invented in the US in 1903.
Most float glass is soda–lime glass, but relatively minor quantities of specialty borosilicate [64] and flat panel display glass are also produced using the float glass process. The success of this process lay in the careful balance of the volume of glass fed onto the bath, where it was flattened by its own weight. [65] Full scale profitable ...
Libbey-Owens merged with the Edward Ford Plate Glass Company in 1930 to form Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company. [1] In April 1986, LOF sold its glass business and name to the Pilkington Group, a multinational glass manufacturer headquartered in the United Kingdom. The remaining three business units of the company, Aeroquip, Vickers, and Sterling ...
Most flat glass is soda–lime glass, produced by the float glass process (1950s). Other processes for making flat glass include: Broad sheet method (13th century) Window crown glass technique (14th century) Blown plate method (17th century) Plate polishing (17th century) Cylinder blown sheet method; Machine drawn cylinder sheet method (early ...
Pilkington aggressively protected its patents and trade secrets through a network of licensing agreements with glass manufacturers around the world. The modern "float" technique (pouring the molten glass on a layer of very pure molten tin) became commercially widespread when Alastair Pilkington developed a practical version, patented in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Before the float process, mirrors were plate glass as sheet glass had visual distortions that were akin to those seen in amusement park or funfair mirrors. In 1918 the Belgian engineer Emil Bicheroux improved the plate glass manufacturing by pouring molten glass between two rollers, which resulted in more even thickness and fewer undulations ...