Glass renders a sleek and sophisticated charm to your residential or commercial space. Glass is highly functional and helps fulfill a wide variety of requirements of modern society. Modern glass fittings come with numerous benefits to both commercial and residential spaces. They are durable, energy-efficient, safe, and help improve the insulation of the building. Float glass has become popular as a staple element in contemporary residential and commercial building projects. This article provides information on what is float glass, and what are they used for.

What Is Float Glass?

Float glass is a distortion-free and super-smooth flat glass that is commonly used to design heat-toughened glass, laminated glass, and more. Float glass is slightly greenish in colour and translucent. It can transmit about 87% of natural light and provides a crystal-clear view to the user. Float glass is manufactured by letting glass freely float in a bath of molten tin – from where it derives its unique name. Float glass is durable, energy-efficient, strong, environmentally-friendly, and has super insulation properties.

History Of Float Glass

Even though glass has been in existence for more than 3600 years, float glass came into existence only in the late 19th century. Glass was originally manufactured using the blowing and disc method. Glass was originally used for making windows in the good old days. Window glass is produced from large pieces of glass or by way of blowing glass bottles. Thereafter, the discs are cut into pieces and flattened together to create window panes. British Engineer, Sir Alastair Pilkington is credited with manufacturing float glass in 1959. He developed float glass using a molten tin where the glass would flow without any hindrances under the force of gravity. Sir Alastair started a profitable business selling float glass in the 1960s.

How Is Float Glass Manufactured?

The manufacturing process starts with a mixture of raw materials such as quartz sand, dolomite, limestone, soda, and salt cake. All these materials are melted in a furnace until they form molten glass. The molten glass is then poured into a chamber from the furnace. The chamber contains a bed of molten tin which is approximately 4 to 8 metres wide and up to 60 metres long. The atmosphere inside the chamber is carefully controlled to manufacture float glass correctly. Tin is used because it is the only metal that is stable in liquid form at a high temperature of 600-degree Celsius. The glass that floats on the tin will take the shape of the container.

Where Is Float Glass Used?

Float glass is quite versatile and can be used in many commercial and residential applications. The crystal-clear transparency of float glass makes it one of the best choices for displaying items. They are used for showroom display cases, countertops, and retail shop windows. Floating glass is also used as facades for glistening skyscrapers. It is also used for wall panels and many other applications.