How Glass is Made - Part Two

"Attention"
Residents of Tortilla Flat, Valley Farms, Winkelman, Dudleyville, Fort McDowell, Phoenix: If you have not read part one, we suggest you read the first installment of the series.

Before the glass is cut, a special powder is dropped on the surface of the glass providing a separation medium between each piece of glass. Then the glass is cut by scoring it with carbide cutting wheels and then snapping it over a roller, which acts like a fulcrum. Mainline scoring equipment consists of slit cutters that score the ribbon of glass in the direction of the flow, and crosscutters score it across the flow. After scoring the glass, a continuous ribbon of glass comes to the mainline snap rolls where cross-cutter scores are open.

Next the plates of glass are routed down the mainline one plate at a time or in small groups. The glass is then moved from the mainline conveyors to the automatic packing lines by means of a corner table, a belt conveyor and rolls conveyor. The glass leaves the corner table and enters the snapping conveyors where the slit cutter scores are open. After the snapped section of glass is cleared, it is transferred one section at a time onto a series of narrow conveyors.

The glass is automatically inspected and reject glass is recycled through the plants culet system and is eventually reused in the batching process. Finally, the glass is conveyed onto the automatic vacuum transfer module (VTM) which operates like a vacuum cleaner, sucking the individual lites of glass off the main conveyor onto the finished step. As the stack of glass gets higher an elevator table indexes down to maintain consistent drop of glass. Once the stack is complete, the elevator table is lowered and the finished container is moved aside while an empty container is moved under the packing module.

An off-line part of the manufacturing process is known as the MSVD chamber or magnetic sputter vacuum deposition. This is where proprietary high performance low emissivity coatings are applied to the glass.  During this process cut pieces of glass are rolled into a vacuum chamber were microscopic layers of various metals, primarily silver, are bonded to the glass. Throughout the process, periodic quality inspections are performed and finally the container is sealed and shipped out to customers in Tortilla Flat, Valley Farms, Winkelman, Dudleyville, Fort McDowell, Phoenix and other cities and towns around the globe.

Return to: part one

Video: How Glass is Made part 2

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SunTec Auto Glass understands the importance of using only the best quality auto glass available for your vehicle and more importantly for the safety of you and your family. If you are in Tortilla Flat, Valley Farms, Winkelman, Dudleyville, Fort McDowell, Phoenix or Maricopa and Pinal Counties and require windshield replacement, auto glass repair, window tinting or glass etching, contact SunTec Auto Glass to handle all your auto glass needs.

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