What is float glass and How is it made?

Crystalclear 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,although lead was used for the process in the past. This method gives the sheet uniform thickness and a very flat surface.

Modern windows are usually made from float glass.Most float glass is soda-lime glass, although relatively minor quantities of specialty borosilicate and flat panel display glass are also produced using the float glass process. The float glass process is also known as the Pilkington process, named after the British glass manufacturer Pilkington, which pioneered the technique in the 1950s at their production site in St Helens, Merseyside.

Float glass is extremely smooth, distortion-free glass used in many window applications. It also provides the material for many other forms of glass, including tinted glass (heat absorbing) and laminated glass.

Float glass is made by pouring the molten glass from a furnace into a chamber that contains a bed of molten tin. The process is sometimes call the Pilkington Process. The atmosphere inside the chamber is carefully controlled. The glass floats on the tin and forms itself in the shape of the container. It spreads 90 to 140 inches wide at a thickness determined at the time of manufacture.

The upper surface of the glass is called the air side or score side. It is polished with fire. The lower surface is called the tin side. It is not fire-polished. From the chamber, the glass enters an oven, called a lehr. There it is slowly cooled at a specific rate. This process, called annealing, relieves the glass of internal stresses. The rate of cooling is crucial to the success of the final product. The glass emerges from the lehr at room temperature as a continuous ribbon. It is flat, fire-finished on the top, and has smooth, parallel surfaces. Automatic cutters trim the edges and cut the glass to length.

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