TABLE OF CONTENTS Manufacturing of commercial glass products involves application of all of the principles discussed earlier in this book. Commercial production, however, requires expansion of these principles to very large scale melting, and to the unique forming methods required for each type of product. Production of tubing from vitreous silica requires a completely different approach than production of bottles or window glass. Processing of traditional bulk consumer products differs greatly from the more sophisticated processing required for optical fibers and glass-ceramics. Non-melting methods of forming glasses, including vapor deposition and sol-gel processing, also deserve a brief discussion. Detailed discussions of glass technology can be found in several books dealing exclusively with that subject.
Glass containers were originally hand blown. A gob of glass was gathered on the end of a blowpipe by dipping the pipe into a melt. Air was forced into the gob by blowing through the pipe, forming a hollow shell of glass around a bubble at the end of the pipe. The object was continually rotated and shaped by hand using paddles formed from wood which had been charred and soaked in water. Containers formed by this method were expensive and highly variable in quality.
The blowpipe method continues to be used to produce specialty items such as lead crystal goblets and other decorative glasses. Production of the vast quantity of containers used today, however, requires total automation of the same processes used by the glass blower. Mechanical gathering...
