What is glass?

Believe it or not, glass is made from liquid sand. You can make glass by heating
ordinary sand (which is mostly made of silicon dioxide) until it melts and turns into a
liquid. You won't find that happening on your local beach: sand melts at the incredibly
high temperature of 1700°C (3090°F).

When molten sand cools, it doesn't turn back into the gritty yellow stuff you started out
with: it undergoes a complete transformation and gains an entirely different inner
structure. But it doesn't matter how much you cool the sand, it never quite sets into a
solid. Instead, it becomes a kind of frozen liquid or what materials scientists refer to as
an amorphous solid. It's like a cross between a solid and a liquid with some of the
crystalline order of a solid and some of the molecular randomness of a liquid.
Glass is such a popular material in our homes because it has all kinds of really useful
properties. Apart from being transparent, it's inexpensive to make, easy to shape when
it's molten, reasonably resistant to heat when it's set, chemically inert (so a glass jar
doesn't react with the things you put inside it), and it can be recycled any number of
times.
Photo: Glass can be used to recycle other materials. Uranium glass has an unusual yellow-green color and glows
in ultraviolet light. These glass pieces were made using waste uranium from the cleanup of the Fernald uranium processing
plant near Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Vitrification (turning a material into glass) is one way to dispose of nuclear waste safely.
Picture by courtesy of US Department of Energy.
How is glass made?

Photo: Lifting a pane of glass into place. Picture by Kelly Barnes courtesy of US Navy.
When US scientists tested a prototype of the atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert in
1945, the explosion turned the sand in the immediate area of the impact into glass.
Fortunately, there are easier and less extreme ways of making glass—but all of them
need immense amounts of heat.
In a commercial glass plant, sand is mixed with waste glass (from recycling collections),
soda ash (sodium carbonate), and limestone (calcium carbonate) and heated in a
furnace. The soda reduces the sand's melting point, which helps to save energy during
manufacture, but it has an unfortunate drawback: it produces a kind of glass that would
dissolve in water! The limestone is added to stop that happening. The end-product is
calledsoda-lime-silica glass. It's the ordinary glass we can see all around us.

Once the sand is melted, it is either poured into molds to make bottles, glasses, and
other containers, or "floated" (poured on top of a big vat of molten tin metal) to make
perfectly flat sheets of glass for windows. Unusual glass containers are still sometimes
made by "blowing" them. A "gob" (lump) of molten glass is wrapped around an open
pipe, which is slowly rotated. Air is blown through the pipe's open end, causing the
glass to blow up like a balloon. With skillful blowing and turning, all kinds of amazing
shapes can be made.
Glass makers use a slightly different process depending on the type of glass they want
to make. Usually, other chemicals are added to change the appearance or properties of
the finished glass. For example, iron andchromium based chemicals are added to the
molten sand to make green-tinted glass. Oven-proof borosilicate glass (widely sold
under the trademark PYREX®) is made by adding boron oxide to the molten mixture.
Adding lead oxide makes a fine crystal glass that can be cut more easily; highly prized
cut lead crystal sparkles with color as it refracts (bends) the light passing through it.
Some special types of glass are made by a different manufacturing process. Bulletproof
glass is made from a sandwich or laminate of multiple layers of glass and plastic
bonded together. Toughened glass used in car windshields is made by cooling molten
glass very quickly to make it much harder. Stained (colored) glass is made by adding
metallic compounds to glass while it is molten; different metals give the separate
segments of glass their different colors.
Photo: Borosilicate glass, such as this PYREX® jug (back), can withstand extreme changes of temperature, unlike normal
glass (front), which shatters. The ordinary glass jar at the front is quite a bit thinner and considerably lighter. You can also
see, very clearly that the borosilicate glass is a slightly blueish color (as is the boron oxide from which it's made).
For a brief moment, the quartz glass behaves like metal. It becomes opaque and conducts
electricity. This change of material properties happens so quickly that it can be used for ultra-fast
light based electronics
There are widely differing opinions on how to refer to materials such as glass that seem
to be a bit like liquids in some ways and a bit like solids in others.
Glass is transparent, hard, is easily moulded into shapes and does not flavour food or drink stored
in it. This makes it ideal for making bottlesand jars. The main raw material used to make glass is
sand. To make clear glass, a special sand called silica sand is used
In schools and in books, we tend to learn that solids all have a fixed structure of atoms.

In fact, there are different kinds of solids that have very different structures and not
everything we describe as "solid" behaves in exactly the same way. Think of a lump
ofiron and a lump of rubber. Quite clearly they are both solids, and yet the rubber is
very different from the iron. Inside, rubber and iron have their atoms (in the case of iron)
and molecules (in the case of rubber) arranged in totally different ways. Iron has a
regular or crystalline structure (like a climbing frame with atoms at the corners), while
rubber is apolymer (made from long chains of molecules loosely connected together).
Or think ofwater. As you may have discovered, water is an almost unique solid because
it expands to begin with when it freezes. In short, not everything fits neatly into our
ideas of solid, liquid, and gas and not all solids, liquids, and gases behave in a nice,
neat, easy-to-explain way. The exceptions are the things that make science really
interesting!
Glass is made by melting together several minerals at very high temperatures. Silica in the form
of sand is the main ingredient and this is combined with soda ash and limestone and melted in a
furnace at temperatures of 1700°C. Other materials can be added to produce different colours or
properties
Amorphous solids
. Peer through a microscope inside some glass and you'll find the molecules from which
it's made are arranged in an irregular pattern. That's why glass is sometimes referred to
as an amorphous solid (a solid without the regular crystalline structure that something
like a metal would have). You may also see glass described as a "frozen supercooled
liquid". This is another way of saying "glass is a liquid that has never set", which is the
puzzling statement you'll sometimes find in science books. We could say glass is a bit
like a liquid and a bit like a solid. It has an internal structure that is somewhere between
the structure of a liquid and a solid, with some of the order of a solid and some of the
randomness of a liquid.
Glass is by no means the only amorphous solid. It's possible to make a type of water
called amorphous ice that could be described as in-between solid (water) and liquid
(ice). You do this by cooling water very quickly. The ice forms so fast that it doesn't
have time to build up its normal, crystalline structure. So what you get looks like ice but
behaves in some ways like liquid water. Other substances can be made into
amorphous solids too. Solar cells are often made from something called amorphous
silicon.

Chemistry of Glass
The main constituent of Flat Glass is SiO2 (silica sand). This has a high melting temperature in the region of 1700
degrees C and its state at this temperature is like syrup on a very cold day. The basic building block of silica has a
tetrahedral pyramid shape with silicon at its centre linked symmetrically to four oxygen atoms at its corners: it has the
chemical formula SiO4 and is negatively charged.

On cooling molten silica quickly, a random organised network of these tetrahedra are formed, linked at their corners,
to give an amorphous material known as vitreous silica.

For practical and economic reasons, the high melting point and viscosity of silica is reduced by adding sodium oxide (a
flux) in the form of a carbonate and the sodium-oxygen atoms enter the silicon-oxygen network, in accordance with
their valency states. These atoms are known as Network Formers. Other major constituents of Flat Glass: Calcium and
Magnesium enter the network structure as Network Modifiers and the action of these modifiers is to make the
structures more complex so that when the components are melted together, in the cooling process, it is more difficult
for the atoms to arrange themselves in suitable configurations for crystallisation to occur. In the glass making
process, the cooling rate is arranged such that viscosity increases and the mobility of the atoms is hindered thus
preventing arrangements and crystallisation from occurring.
Thus glass is often referred to as a supercooled liquid in that it has no crystallisation or melting point and does not
exhibit the phenomenon of the latent heat of crystallisation or fusion.
There is no single chemical composition that characterizes all glass. Formers make up the largest
percentage of the mixture to be melted. In typical soda-lime-silica glass the former is silica (Silicon dioxide)
in the form of sand. Fluxes lower the temperature at which the formers will melt.
Glass is a mixture having no definite boiling of freezing points. It is also called a super
cooled liquid. Chemically, most glasses are silicates. It is transparent and not affected
by chemicals. It can be moulded into any shape. The ingredients for making glass are:-
1. Limestone (CaCO3),
2. Soda ash (Na2CO3), and
3. Sand (SiO2)
Manufacture of glass
The manufacture of glass involves the following steps:
1. Limestone, sand and soda ash are mixed and poured into a tank furnace. Tank
furnace looks like a small swimming pool. It is very hot (about 17000C). It is shallow at
one end and deep at the other.
2. The raw material moves slowly towards the deeper end. Silica melts at a very high
temperature. In order to lower its melting point, soda ash is added. Thus, energy is
saved and a low cost is incurred in the glass-making process.
3. Due to the presence of limestone, glass becomes insoluble in water.
4. As the raw material melts, a clear jelly-like substance is formed; this takes about a
week’s time.
5. During this time bubbles of CO2 gas escape and some of the raw material slowly
changes into a mixture of silicates.
6. The following reactions take place inside the furnace.
7. The clear jelly-like substance on cooling sets to form glass. This is known as soda-
lime glass.
Types of glass
There are nine types of glass according to the minor additions and variations in the
ingredients used and according to the methods of manufacturing. The different types of
glasses are different in their properties and uses.
1. Soda glass or soda-lime glass:
It is the most common variety of glass. It is prepared by heating sodium carbonate and
silica. It is used for making windowpanes, tableware, bottles and bulbs.

soda glass
2. Coloured glass:
Small amounts of metallic oxides are mixed with the hot molten mixture of sand,
sodium carbonate and limestone. The desired colour determines the choice of the
metallic oxide to be added, as different metallic oxides give different colours to the
glass.
Coloured glass is much in demand. It is used for decorating walls, making sunglasses,
and for making light signals for automobiles, trains and aeroplanes.

3. Plate glass:
Plate glass is thicker than ordinary glass. It has a very smooth surface. It is made by
floating a layer of molten glass over a layer of molten tin. It is used in shop windows

and doors.
4. Safety glass:
It can also be called shatterproof glass. It is made by placing a sheet of plastic such as
celluloid between sheets of glass. The special quality of this glass is that in case of
breakage the broken pieces stick to the plastic and do not fly off. You must have noticed
a broken window-pane of a bus or a car still in its place. It is used in automobiles. It is
also used for making bulletproof screens.

5. Laminated glass:
It can also be called bulletproof glass. Several layers of safety glass are bound together
with a transparent adhesive. The larger the number of layers used the greater is the
strength of the glass. It is stronger than safety glass. It is used in aeroplanes and

windshields of cars. laminated glass

 laminated
glass in architecture
6. Optical glass:
Optical glass is softer than any other glass. It is clear and transparent. Potassium and
lead silicates are used in making optical glass. It is also called flint glass. The main use
of flint glass is in the manufacture of lenses, prisms and other optical instruments.

optical
glass

7. Pyrex glass:
Pyrex glass is highly heat resistant. In ordinary glass, silica is the main constituent. In
pyrex glass some of the silica is replaced by boron oxide. Boron oxide expands very little
when heated, thus, pyrex glass does not crack on strong heating. Pyrex glass is also
called borosilicate glass. It has a high melting point and is resistant to many chemicals.
Laboratory equipment and ovenware are made of pyrex glass.

Pyrex glass
8. Photo-chromatic glass:
Photochromatic glass acquires a darker shade when exposed to bright light and returns
to its original lighter shade in dim light. This happens because silver iodinde is added to
this glass. (silver iodide gets coloured with the intensity of light.)
 Photochromatic
9. Lead crystal glass:
Lead crystal glass has high refractive index, and so has the maximum brilliance. It
sparkles and is used for high quality art objects and for expensive glassware. It is also
called cut glass because the surface of the glass objects is often cut into decorative
patterns to reflect light. In order to increase the refractive index, lead oxide is used as
flux in crystal glass, therefore it is also called lead crystal glass.

Lead crystal
 Lead crystal
The major disadvantage of ordinary glass is that it is brittle. It cracks when subjected to
sudden changes of temperature. When the glass has been moulded into a finished
article, it is cooled very slowly to prevent brittleness. The process in which a finished
glass article is cooled slowly is called annealing.
Applications
Glass is an unlimited and innovative material that has plenty of applications. It is an essential component of numerous
products that we use every day, most often without noticing it.
It is clear that modern life would not be possible without glass!
Glass is used in the following non-exhaustive list of products:
 Packaging (jars for food, bottles for drinks, flacon for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals)
 Tableware (drinking glasses, plate, cups, bowls)
 Housing and buildings (windows, facades, conservatory, insulation, reinforcement structures)
 Interior design and furnitures (mirrors, partitions, balustrades, tables, shelves, lighting)
 Appliances and Electronics (oven doors, cook top, TV, computer screens, smart-phones)
 Automotive and transport (windscreens, backlights, light weight but reinforced structural components of cars,
aircrafts, ships, etc.)
 Medical technology, biotechnology, life science engineering, optical glass
 Radiation protection from X-Rays (radiology) and gamma-rays (nuclear)
 Fibre optic cables (phones, TV, computer: to carry information)
 Renewable energy (solar-energy glass, windturbines)
All of this is made possible by the countless properties of the glass substance
Pics on Applications
Market

In INdia
The glass industry in India is divided into two categories: cottage industry and factory
industry.
Under cottage industry, glass bangles are made in small furnaces either from glass
blocks produced in factories or from inferior glass manufactured from the impure sands
of the rivers and the efflorescent alkali. Flower pots, decorative glassware, tableware’s,
lamps and lamp-wares are also produced under cottage industry. Cottage industry,
though spread throughout the country, is mainly concentrated in Firozabad (Uttar
Pradesh) and Belgaum (Karnataka).
The factory industry is mostly confined to Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal,
Bihar, Jharkhand and Punjab. Ceramic industries in Uttar Pradesh mainly produce
sheet glass, hollow and pressed wares (bulbs, chimneys, reflectors and motor
headlights), while Bengal and Maharashtra are famous for glass tubes, test- tubes,
beakers and flat glass. Punjab predominates in the production of hollowware’s and
scientific and precision goods.
Manufacture of glass requires a large number of raw materials such as silica sand, coal
and chemicals. Silica sand is the most important raw material. Sands of the degree of
purity requisite for glass-making are found at several places in India.
A cheap supply of coal is of great importance. Coal is largely obtained from West
Bengal and Jharkhand. A large number of required chemicals, such as borax, soda
ash, selenium, saltpetre, manganese dioxide and colouring agents, are available within
the country.
All types of glassware are manufactured ‘in India, many of the manufacturing units
being in the small sector. There are more than 40 units producing glass containers and
hollowware’s. In 1993, the first plant to make float glass—used in construction,
architectural, automotive, mirror and solar energy industries—was set up in India.
Several foreign brands too have entered the market. The use of flat glass not only adds
to the aesthetic beauty of buildings but also leads to substantial savings of wood, thus
conserving forest resources.
Several manufacturing units make vacuum flasks and refills. The quality of vacuum
flask refills produced in India has excellent acceptability even in developed countries.
Laboratory/scientific glassware is also manufactured in India. Fibre glass production is
a recent development—from around the 1980s.
Fibre glass is used in conjunction with plastic material to produce fibre glass reinforced
plastic products (FRP). The prime objective of using fibre glass is to give mechanical
strength to composite material, since it is non-corrosive and lighter than aluminium but
stronger than steel.
Fiber glass

Fiber glass roofing

Fiber glass basketball board

Top companies in india

Here is a list of Top 10 Glass companies in India; these are top glass manufacturers in the country which are
producing best quality glass products for various uses to the industries. An Automobile, Pharmaceuticals,
Liquor, Beverages, Cosmetics, Processed Foods industries are the major users of glass products. (Just name
them in your project)

# | Hindustan National Glass & Industries Limited (HNGIL)

Headquarter – Kolkata, Bengal | Founded – 1946
Business – Glass Containers | Website – www.hngil.com
Hindustan National Glass and Industries Limited is one of the supreme in the field of glass manufacturers in
India and has over the years been one of the most efficient of all the companies operating in this particular
field. The company gets along with quiet a many varied fields to excel upon and this is just the reason why it
is among the top 10 glass manufacturing companies in the nation

# | Asahi India Glass Limited (AIS)

Headquartered – Gurgaon, Haryana | Founded – 1984
Business – Automotive glass products, Laminated windshields, tempered back and door glass and value-
added glass, Architectural glass products, Tinted glass, solar control & heat-reflective glass, mirrors, frosted
& lacquered glass | Website – www.aisglass.com
Let it be any glass! The automobile glasses or the architectural glasses. The company is here to help you out
with it! Come up and all you would get all that you can ever think of. The company is also among the top
most companies in the world and helps all in every possible way. Thus, this is one of the best glass
manufacturing companies around.

# | La Opala RG Limited
Headquarter – Kolkata, Bengal | Founded – 1986
Business – Opal Glassware, Crystal Glassware | Website – www.laopala.in
La Opala, isn’t the name enough to fascinate you with the quality. The company has been in the field of
decorative glasses for quiet some time to make it a point to stand out as one of the leading companies in
glass manufacturing. The decorative glasses of the company surely deserves a mention. They are just the
ones that you can ever think of when it comes to good decorative glasses.
# | Borosil Glass Works Limited
Headquarter – Mumbai, Maharashtra | Founded – 1988
Business – Scientific & Industrial Glassware, Consumer ware, Low Iron Solar Glass, Lighting | Website –
www.borosil.com
Borosil, the company which has left a special mark in the air tight container in the kitchens of the nation and
is also one of the leading laboratory goods manufacturer in the nation. All that you would want from the
company is the best and the company has nothing other than that to offer to the clients.

# | Saint-Gobain Sekurit India Limited

Headquarter – New Delhi, India | Founded – 1996
Business – Float Glasses and Mirrors, Automotive glass products | Website – www.saint-gobain.co.in
This is a 350 years innovative group. Is there anything else that needs to be discussed about the company.
The basic rules that the company follows to satisfy the customers is to just offer them the best services and
the deals that one can ever think of. There are also many other ways in which the company is far more
efficient in all the possible ways which surely makes it one of the top 10 glass manufacturing companies in
India.

# | Empire Industries Limited

Headquarter – Mumbai, Maharashtra | Founded – 1963
Business – Amber Glass Containers for pharmaceutical industries | Website –www.empiremumbai.com
A 105-year-old company, this company have been well in effect in the British rule as well. The company has
been in full effect ever since it had started just because there was no other way one would have been able to
lead a company and be famous at the same time with just all the reputation that it had right from the
beginning of the company.

# | Binani Industries Limited (BRAJ Binani Group)

Headquarter – Mumbai, Maharashtra | Founded – 1872
Business – Fiber Glass and Composites | Website – www.binaniindustries.com
Pioneering in any of the field is just not an easy thing or any one’s cup of tea. Pioneering in any field needs
quiet a many of the qualities in a company that one looks up to and all that you will get from this company is
all that you need to be a pioneer in the trade that you are looking at. The company brings in all the
experience and talent that it has ever had and that is just what makes it able to stand out.

# | Haldyn Glass Limited

Headquarter – Mumbai, Maharashtra | Founded – 1991
Business – Amber Glass Containers, Clear glass Vials | Website – www.haldynglass.com
Among the top rated glass companies in India, the company with the help of two glass melting furnaces,
tolls up to a total of 320 tons of glass melting capacity per day. The company is sure to help one with the
largest of all the needed facilities and thus make quiet good a production to satisfy the customer needs.
There are also all other processing units that would help hasten the work power.

# | Nile Limited
Headquarter – Hyderabad, Telangana | Founded – 1987
Business – Lead and Lead alloys | Website – www.nilelimited.com
Being an ISO 9001 certified company, the company is one of those that would simply help you get all your
fantasies related to the glass company fulfilled with the group of abled leaders and the young blood that the
company has in to offer to the clients at large. The company offers all support to the customers and reach out
to all their needs.

# | Swiss Glascoat Equipment Limited

Headquarter – Vithal Udhyognagar, Gujarat | Founded – 1991
Business – Carbon Steel Glass Lined Equipments | Website – www.glascoat.com
Surely among the most reputed companies in the glass manufacturing companies in India, the company has
always been in the frontier of the top of the list. The company has a capacity of producing 8000 glass lined
equipment which helps them to emerge as the pioneer in many of the customised and well-known processes!