| Category | Type | ||
| Glass | Decor Glass Float Glass Toughened Glass Wire Glass |
Glass is a uniform amorphous solid material, usually produced when the viscous molten material cools very rapidly to below its glass transition temperature, without sufficient time for a regular crystal lattice to form. The most familiar form of glass is the silica-based material used for windows, containers and decorative objects.
Glass is a biologically inactive material that can be formed with very smooth and impervious surfaces. Glass is, however, brittle and will break into sharp shards. These properties can be modified or changed with the addition of other compounds or heat treatment.
Common glass contains about 70-72 weight % of silicon dioxide (SiO2). The major raw material is sand (or "quartz sand") that contains almost 100% of crystalline silica in the form of quartz. Even though it is an almost pure quartz, still it may contain a little (<1%) of iron oxides that would color the glass, so this sand is usually enriched in the factory to reduce the iron oxide amount to <0.05%. Large natural single crystals of quartz are purer silicon dioxide, and they, upon crushing, are used for the high quality specialty glasses. At last, synthetic amorphous silica (practically 100% pure) is the raw material for the most expensive specialty glasses.
Ukrainian inventor Johan De Broyer has conceived the idea for a re-sealable aluminum soda can read more
Richard Vennix MSc
co-founder of Matbase and innovation consultant
08-12-2009 08:33
Last november was a memorable month for us at Matbase, we passed the milestone of 1000 visitors per day. So I guess we were not that far of when we thought it would be a good idea to make the material database we used as students during our stay at the Delft University of Technology accessable to other people. Apparently, people appreciate the easy way they can lookup the material properties and how we present the data.
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