Raw materials
1. Silica
2. Soda ash (sodium carbonate)
3. Lime (calcium oxide added to provide for a better chemical durability)
Process
Mixture of sand, soda ash, and lime are melted together in furnaces at high temperatures until the mixture become a syrupy mass. When this syrup cools, it is glass. When glass is in a melted state, it can be shaped by many methods, but the most common are blowing, pressing, and drawing.
Product
Soda-lime glass
Used for
Flat glass, container glass
Production facility
Brisbane, QLD
Export
Andorra la Vella, Andorra
Production facility
Brisbane, QLD
Export
Andorra la Vella, Andorra
Yeap. There's many products of glass in the market - optical glass, crystal glass, heat resistant glass, coloured tinted glass, soda-lime glass, among others.
ReplyDeleteThe research centre where I am now, research on making glasses. The one that is most popularly research on is crystal glass. Like what you've said, the basic ingredient for making glass is silica sand (note, it's silica sand, not just silica). What type of glass you make depends on the type of raw materials and the purity of these raw materials.
The melting temperature to produce crystal glass is about 1,400 to 1,600 deg Celsius. I'm guessing, the melting temperature of soda-lime glass (the glass you're making) would be about 1,200 to 1,400 deg Celsius.
Yes, my research centre also use blowing, pressing, and drawing to shape the glass into various shapes. The shape that our glass researchers favour is that of an egg. The egg would be transparent. The inside of the egg would be decorated with colours of infinite patterns and descriptions. The cost of such egg would be about RM30 to RM50.
Just wondering, does Australia have silica sand i.e. sand with high % of silica?
ReplyDeleteIn Malaysia, the best silica sand comes from Bintulu, Sarawak. The % of silica in the sand is said to be 99.9%. With that kind of purity, one can use the sand to produce optical glasses, I presume. Optical glasses are glasses used to make lenses for telescopes, microscopes, binoculars, projectors, spectacles, among others.
That is most interesting! Thank you for sharing! :)
ReplyDelete