Pilkington Float Glass - Float Process
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Watch the magic of this science-based process begins to unfold, in a series of stages on a float line that may be nearly half a kilometre long. Raw materials enter at one end. From the other, plates of glass emerge, cut precisely to specification, at rates as high as 6,000 tonnes a week. In between lie six high integrated stages...
@PilkingtonTV 12 years later continues to give clear responses and are openly transparent about the manufacturing process. Reading about float glass opened a window into St Helens' history.
My Da is a scouser born a few years prior to this invention. When I was a kid he'd love to talk about float glass, instilling me with awe and respect for this huge never ending process. Learning the St Helens origin might explain his sheer level of fascination, good chance my grandad actually worked there post-war.
its been a decade and you're still replying to comments, you really do love your job!
We try to do our best Thanks.
This video goes hard.
During my education I took several glass furnaces to production, Germany, Poland, India. This was a great job, installing the burners, oxygen sensors.
Great old retro 90s manufacturing video
A few questions to the manufacturer: 1) Does the float process ensure perfect flatness of the ribbon and then also of the resulting cut panes? 2) What are the quality-control tolerances of flatness vs. arc/bulge of a finished pane of glass? 3) How big do you typically cut the finished panes? 4) Did I understand that the flat glass ribbon is 250m long? If so, that is incredible! Thank you, Pilkington for this video!
Thank you for your interest. Please find below answers to your questions:
1) Yes, the float process ensures perfect flatness for both the ribbon and final panes.
2) Flatness is addressed within the bow and dish requirements of our internal float glass manufacturing specification. We do not make our manufacturing specifications publicly available, but we confirm that Pilkington Optifloat™ meets the requirements of the European Standard, EN 572-2.
3) Standard available sizes: jumbo size 6000 x 3210 mm, LES size 3210 x 2550 mm.
4) If we say the ribbon is formed in the bath and a typical bath is 60 m long, the annealing lehr to cutting is ~180 m, then yes 250 m is typical for a continuous flat glass ribbon, but there is some variation between the manufacturing plants.
One of the best glass industry is pilkington specially the mirror glass
Thank you very much!
Fascinating!
Congratulations for the video.
Near my town there is a float furnace of the Pilkington plant in San Salvo
which countreu is that?
Very informative.
I like showing this video to my friends...they always ask what it is like at my job so i show them....being i am a glassmaking tech. at a local Pilkington/NSG float plant
I work downstream birmingham.
do you know Thomas Shelby ?
Kimberly Locklear what's the longest pane of glass poured onto molten tin? From what I found at their website is a bath that's just under a half mile.
This is so explanatory! Thanks!
What happens if there's an electric power outage? Do the furnaces stay on, or hold their temperature?
Bryan C
Multiple backup systems are in place. For electrical power loss, conveyors, computers, and ADS machines have battery backups that immediately take over to maintain function until backup generators can be powered up. All backup systems are tested monthly and well maintained. For loss of natural gas there is a contingency plan using liquid fuel turned to aerosol using compressed air. For loss of water cooling we switch to city supplied water. If city water fails, there are multiple water towers with a backup supply.
you can also use an LPG/Air mixer that combines propane with air to match the Wobbe Index of natural gas. This can be used as a direct substitute to natural gas.
@@timmay6545 So is it rare to lose a batch and have to recycle it all?
@nickallen13 once the furnaces are fired up they operate 24/7 non-stop for years, we try to get over 15 years out of a furnace... transitioning between colors or when problems arise like water leaks in the furnace, the glass produced is busted and stored to be "salted in" and recycled based on color/composition... it is much easier to melt the broken glass (cullet) than it is to melt raw batch, so we always run using a variable percentage of cullet. Our goal is to minimize fuel consumption and run the furnaces as efficiently as possible, so the "loss" is never truly a loss... so it is technically common to lose batches, but it is necessary and it is all accounted for and used in future batches to reduce fuel consumption.
I just just cut glass for table tops and windows, its great to see how its made, and Pilkington also does a great low e
Thanks!
If I told somebody I wanted to make glass by floating it across on molten tin, I don’t think anyone would take me seriously
How do they prevent the molten glass and tin from fusing?
tin will only fuse to the glass if the tin starts to oxidize. having pressure and a mixture of gases to create a atmosphere prevent the fusing of the two
@@TheShadeManGuitar Thank you.
How does that initial cross-wise cut work? It looks like the cutting wheel travels a diagonal line across the glass and then you see nice rectangles of glass!?
That's correct. The cutting wheel travels a diagonal line across the glass because the glass is moving underneath.
PilkingtonTV right, so how do diagonal cuts suddenly become rectangular pieces?
The movement looks and is diagonal but the cut is perpendicular to the edge of the glass. Imagine if the movement was perpendicular to the edge of the glass and the glass was moving then the cut would be diagonal.
Hello, I would like to know how the glass packages located in the warehouse are moved. at 7:08 a kind of crane is seen, but they don't show it much.... a name would be great.
Hi, the packages are moved throughout the warehouse with special vehicles, so called glass frame transporters (Hubtex) to prepare the goods for dispatch to our customers. Some of the packages are brought to the storage area by cranes. Thanks.
4:20 Sped up*
Excellent industry vid. I am wondering, is lead one of the elements they can spray on a the end to help with heat retention or some other goal? And is all the other glass making processes are just called non float?
The use of lead could help in radiation shielding. For heat retention (inside the building) the glass would be coated with low emissivity coating. More information is available on our website: www.pilkington.com/en/global/about/education/glass-in-buildings/energy-saving
It's too bad where the roller cause the dents they don't break it off sooner and recycle it when it's still hot they'd save even more than 20% on heating costs since the scrap glass would already be warm.
David Hughes Hot glass is above it's Tg temprature - it won't break off, it would tear with plastic deformation which would spoil the edges and deform areas around them.
But yes, the sooner they are broken off the warmer they are, thus saving costs.
The glass needs to be annealed before it can be scored and broken out. It is still quite warm though from the annealing process. By the time the knurl (ridged part made by the top roll machines) is scored and broken away from the ribbon it needs to travel by conveyer back to the batch house before it is sent along with the batch over to the furnace where it sits in a bin where it is gravity fed into the furnace. Almost impossible to contain and recycle the original heat.
H
karl pilkington
Lò thủy tinh lớn nhất trên thế giới bao nhiêu T/D
You need to check with glass melting furnaces producers. Thanks.
David should be working on his project
manufacturing technology in fast running
the shape of the earth brought me here
so is it "magic" or is it "science-based"?
I've worked as a glassmaker at Pilkington's rolled p!are and electric furnace float line.
It is very much science from their Latham scientists and working experience from their workers.
Working the glass, getting it down the lehr and cutting it correctly is passed on from more experienced workers and learned from making mistakes.
It's like driving a 50 tonne truck on an icy road, and one small mistake can ruin the process for hours, days , weeks.or.months.
KATHI ESWARAIAH UDAYAGIRI NELLURU SUPAR STAR GLASS
I have some questions. Can I get an engineers email?
Please visit our website www.pilkington.com, choose your country and look for cotact details or contact form there. Thanks.
i need a float glass production plant with 40 MT production capacity , can anyone help me with this
did you ever get one
what is your address?
i rely appreciated the technology; yet it shall be easy to down load.
Worthless, i want to see molten glass on top of mirror like tin, why would you skip this!
you did see it. 4:33
Forensics students check in here