How Glass is Made | From Mining Silica to Wonders of Glass!

in 2022 a United Nations agency report revealed that the world is heading towards sand scarcity this surprised many as sand is the most abundant material on Earth it can be found anywhere from riverine areas to dry deserts so how are sand reserves d Ling According to some estimates sand is the most extracted material on Earth annually around 50 billion tons of sand are extracted worldwide almost every major building material whether concrete asphalt or glass is composed of sand we use sand in paint toothpaste windshields silicon chips and nearly every essential product without which the modern

way of life is impossible sand can be white black black pink red orange white gray or light brown there are more than 20 types of sand one of the most important types is silica it is used in almost every glass making product and primarily occurs in the form of quartz explosives are used at mining sites to extract silica the Blasted Sandstone is collected with wheel loaders and then transported by dump trucks to the crusher line there the Sandstone goes through various crushes to achieve the desired particle size distribution this is the mclanahan jaw Crusher which

acts as a primary Crusher for Sandstone it consists of two opposing jaw dyes that create a v cavity called The Crusher chamber the material is squeezed between the moving jaw dye and a stationary jaw dye the discharge opening controls the desired product or yield typically the mind or is reduced by a jaw Crusher to about 1 in in size likewise Sandstone falls on the high-speed rotor drum in the impact Crusher which breaks upon impact the material then encounters a series of anvils or curtains that further crush it as it travels through the crusher the crushed

sand is still not pure silica it needs to be graded and purified for this purpose CDE Group a renowned company that manufactures wet processing Solutions has designed this silica sand wash Plant which can produce 220 tons of glass sand every har the process begins at the feeding system where dump trucks unload the crushed silica straight into the feeding system this system regulates the feed to the wash Plant next the sand goes through a pre-screen which removes the oversized material with the primary cut at seven mesh the term mesh refers to the number of pores per

inch for instance the five Infinity high frequency Infinity screens cut sand at 30 mesh meaning these screens have 30 openings on every inch of their screen upon vibration sand particles of a certain size can only pass through these openings in this way the coarse sand is separated out and stockpiled for coar construction use this refin mind silica sand now has to go through attrition cells these cells clean the surface of particulates removing unwanted contaminants impurities and pollutants this process includes removing clay slime and cleaning surfaces of soft or conglomerate impurities likewise heavy metal contaminants are

removed by the spirals the slurry rotates due to gravity and the shape of the Spiral shoots the spiral motion tends to push heavier particles inward because of centrifugal force at the bottom of the spiral separator gates are installed at different radi they simply lead the slurry with the heaviest metal into different chambers and the filtered silica into another next the wet high-intensity magnetic separators further purify silica from ferromagnetic Elements by attracting them with their magnetic field then the feed enters the hydrocyclone and C rigal forces push heavier solids outward leaving behind concentrated particles The Vortex

finder creates a swirling motion and the fluid exits through the Overflow while solids exit at the bottom throughout the process water usage is optimized with the aquacycle thickener which recycles 90% of the water reducing waste and environmental impact this comprehensive process ensures the efficient production and utilization of silica for various industrial applications the silica ranging from mesh 30 to 100 is considered ideal for making glass there are two famous methods of glass making float glass processing and the glass blowing method in the float glass method molten glass is floated on a bed of molten tin

to create a uniform thickness and smooth surface on the other hand the glass blowing method is employed to blow air into the molten glass to shape it into the desired form but first to produce glass material silica needs to be melted at a high temperature for this purpose tons of extracted and purified silica are brought to the batch house a batch house is a place where silica and all other necessary ingredients are tested they may include soda lime and aluminum soda lowers the melting point of glass compounds lime enhances their stability and aluminum makes them

tougher these ingredients are then mixed evenly in a specific proportion to make a specific type of glass for manufacturing float Glass Broken Glass can also be used the recycling of wasted glass is known as colored recycling it is also mixed with batched material which saves up to 15% of the new raw material next the fully batched material is fed to a large furnace it melts down the glass material at a temperature of up to 3,000 F and the compound transforms into a several foot deep pool of liquid glass after approximately 36 hours this liquid glass

is spread over molten tin at 2,000 fahit in a separate section the underside of the glass floats onto the tin in the tin bath and is heated from above to form a seamless sheet of glass usually called a glass ribbon this process is called the tin bath to ensure the quality of the glass each process is monitored by the manager and his team from the control room next the formed glass has to go through another process called a kneeling a kneeling Lair is a long tunnel-like furnace with individual oven sections there the glass ribbon is

gradually cooled down and has to pass through a pair of water cooled form rolls to give it a uniform thickness at the end of the lay the air is battered on the produced glass further cooling it to the point where it can be cut in the US Cardinal FG company produces 600 tons of float glass every day from the main furnace to the cold end they process 20 mi of glass ribbon and use Advanced Technologies to make their product defectless cameras detect uniformity in the glass lasers point out any anomalies in the edge of the

glass and experts do manual inspection if any defect is detected that portion of the glass ribbon is automatically marked and later cut out a special device the XY cutter marks a thin continuous scratch from one end of the other Edge on the surface of the glass this process is known as scoring which offers controlled glass fracturing along predetermined lines while going through a bump roll the scored ribbon splits apart or is cut into pieces of glass sheets the edges are then trimmed if the glass's edge remains untrimmed anywhere the Laser Technology detects this defect the

defective sheet is sent back to the batch house for recycling finally the ready glass arrives at the packing station great care is taken to package wrap and label the orders float glass manufacturing methods can only offer glass in the form of flat sheets the air is blown from inside to transform glass into a specific shape such as bottles jars or any other shape this is why it is called the glass blowing method more or less the batch mixing and melting of glass in the main furnace are the same as what we have seen in float

glass manufacturing the difference in the process starts with the glass forming process in this process the molten glass is fed into narrow canals which are known as feeders the molten glass in specific Amounts is allowed to fall through an opening at the bottom of the feeder this falling molten glass is known as a glass Gob which is poured into black mold the Gob adapts to form the neck of the bottle due to its molten state next compressed air is inside the molten Gob to shape it according to the mold this initial shape of the bottle

is known as parason next the parison is flipped to an upright position to give it the final desired shape the injection of more air fully defines the shape this method of glass forming is known as the blow and blow method it is suitable for bottles with narrow necks such as those that are used used for containing Beverages and perfumes for wide mouth glass vases the press and blow method is the industry standard the molten Gob is dropped into black mold but before blowing it from beneath plungers press the blank shape this action results in the

parison OR initial stage of a glass jar next the parison is transferred to another mold called the blow mold there compressed air is blown to give them their final shape glass bottles are not done yet they need to be annealed for this purpose they are slowly reheated and likewise gradually cooled down in the next stage every glass bottle is inspected using an automatic check system or by experienced employees to ensure the quality of the final product one by one everything is checked whether it is the split finish finish or wall thickness of the glass bottles

any rejected containers are immediately removed from the production line recycled as cullets and used in the fabrication of new glass interestingly glass is the only packing material that can be totally recycled indefinitely although the packaging bottles themselves must be carefully wrapped before shipment every pallet is covered with plastic wrap to protect protect the glass containers since 1984 Rotel has been manufacturing glass packaging products with its eight production lines this company produces a total of 700,000 bottles and jars every single day this glass bottle manufacturing industry reached a value of $38 billion and it is likely

to grow much more in the future but there is another unnoticed glass product that is much smaller inze size but has globally exceeded the $8 billion Market size it captures our memories and we use it on every other device from smartphones to laptops and on almost every photography Gadget it is the camera lens an optical lens is the eye of the camera it captures light and passes it onto the camera's sensor thereby determining the sharpness depth of field and overall aesthetic of the image fundamentally there are two types of camera lenses the prime lens and

the zoom lens the prime lenses have a fixed focal range while a zoom lens is made of a set of lenses that can zoom in and out by physically adjusting the focal length most of our Flagship smartphones come equipped with zoom lenses but the difference is that these lenses cannot slide instead they seamlessly switch to the other camera with higher magnification whether it is a single lens or a collection of lenses manufacturing them is way more complicated than just making float glass and glass bottles it starts with making the perfect slab of optical glass this

isn't just any glass it's a material chosen for its unparalleled Clarity and Purity essential qualities for capturing Crisp Images these glass slabs are first analyzed meticulously and then marked and cut into pieces the resultant is known as glass blanks now it needs to be transformed into a transparent Optical lens for this purpose experts and machines work side by side they place a blank glass or glass disc on a rotating device where a curve generator can grind it with Precision the curve generator has a Diamond Cutter that carves out the lens with Precision using CNC technology

to transform a blank into a convex lens it grinds the edges to make them thin while the center remains thick on the other hand a concave lens is shaped by seamlessly grinding from the thin Center to the thick edges this is called spherical grinding in the next stage Precision Machining further refines the lens then the finely ground lens is fixed in a metal shell for future processing this locking is called blocking now the lens is ready for transformation from open opaque white glass into a glossy transparent lens to do this factories use Liquid abrasive materials

such as graded Emory flour and fabricated plates this polishing process makes the lens surface smooth transparent and scratchless glass polishing is a slow procedure that requires lenses to be oscillated back and forth against a spinning polisher for hours at a time the lenses emerge from this process with a gleam their surfaces smooth and their profiles perfectly curved after 3 hours of receiving this protective finish the lenses are clean to remove any residue each lens whether concave or convex undergo a rigorous inspection and cleaning process the stakes are high as even a single Speck of dust

could compromise the optical system affecting the image quality next the lens edges are coated with black ink this ink blocks the light coming from the edges and eliminates internal reflection the lens is now ready to be installed in the camera lens frame moreover protection anti-glare and other types of Coatings are also applied to camera lenses chromatic aberration is a common problem with camera lenses it happens because a lens fails to focus all colors on the same point to eliminate this Distortion lens manufacturers join a concave and a convex lens together a technician applies Optical cement

to a convex lens and positions a concave lens on top the application of pressure ensures the cement spreads evenly bonding the two lenses together this Union is crucial as it stabilizes the lenses within the lens Barrel preventing any unwanted movement the lens Barrel itself is the final piece of the puzzle a technician carefully engraved gives technical details onto it such as focal length and aperture size these inscriptions are not merely decorative they provide photographers with essential information enabling them to manipulate the lens to capture the desired image as the process concludes the individual components of

the camera lens come together each playing its part in The Grand Design the end product is a tool that not just records photographs but also captures moments in time time allowing Tales to be shared and memories to be remembered it's a testament to the skill and dedication of those who work in the shadows their craft enabling the magic of visual storytelling to unfold before our eyes the use of light and lenses to capture images dates back only two centuries despite the fact that many civilizations in the past have used light to communicate narinder Singh kapani

saw the magical potential of glass for the effective use of light in transferring tremendous amounts of data across the Earth within microsc his published research work gave us a new breakthrough invention made of glass Optical fibers and the brilliant man himself is renowned as the father of fiber optics inventing something capable of changing the world is one thing and starting its mass production is another an optical fiber typically consists of a core and a glass tube in the center through which light transmits the core is covered with cladding to protect it the first step in

manufacturing optical fiber is the creation of solid glass tubes it is called preform this tube is rotated on its axis and heated to around 1500° C at the same time Ultra Pure chemicals are put into the preform which when heated and contaminated with glass walls turn into microscopic particles known as suit these suot particles begin to adhere to the interior walls of the tube generating a thin film layer by layer the process continues this inner layer later becomes the core of the optical fiber after these layers are deposited the temperature is increased and the feed

of the chemicals is reduced to produce a solid Rod or preform now the ready preform form needs to be analyzed to measure its refractive index the refractive index indicates light bending ability through the glass medium Germania increases the fiber's refractive index whereas Boron decreases it the preform is now ready for fiber drawing which will transform into Optical fibers it is lowered into a high Purity glass furnace 1,00 Celsius Metals down the tip and gravity pulls the molten tip to freeze fall following that a thin tube with 125 Micron diameter is drawn a diameter gauge system

with Laser Technology ensures every bit of the optical fiber has the same desired Dimensions the optical fiber is then run through dye which applies a protective coating to make it resilient and easy to handle now it can be wound on a drum it passes several tests and trials such as testing tensile strength which should be at least 100,000 per in and measuring its loss of optical power carrying capacity and numerical aperture in recent times scientists and Engineers have discovered another hidden use of glass a piece of transparent fused silica can store a large amount of

data not only that but this data on the layers of silica can last for over 300 million years Hitachi is the Pioneer of this technology they started working on it in 2008 and after years of hard work they managed to develop the fto second pulse laser equipment this high output laser stores data in the form of 2D code by inscribing dots on a layer inside fused silica with an optical microscope computers can read and retrieve the data Hitachi claims that it can store and retrieve data on over 100 layers of an inch thick silica piece

my Microsoft is another company striving to achieve the true potential of glass in storing data the company initiated project silica with the aim of inscribing data on glass in the form of voxal or three-dimensional pixels they even created a glass library to store those glasses there they have special librarian robots that will handle these crystalline archives these were some of the wonders of glass since prehistoric times mankind has been using glass and it is still continuing to offer more hope you find this documentary informative share your thoughts in the comments give a like to this

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