The main component of any kind of is sand. Sand by itself could be fused to make glass. But, the temperature required to carry out such a process would be too high - about 1700'C. To reduce this temperature of fusion, other chemicals are added to sand. This chemical is Sodium Carbonate, better known as Soda Ash. A mixture of 75% of silica with 25% of Soda Ash would reduce the fusion temperature to 800'C. However, this composition of glass is soluble in water and is known as water glass. To give glass stability, some other chemicals are introduced in this mixture. These chemicals are CaO and MgO. These chemicals are obtained by using limestone (CaCO3) and dolomite (MgCO3). When they are subjected to high temperature, carbon dioxide is given off leaving the oxides in the glass.

Commercial Glass is mainly of three types: Soda Lime glass, Borosilicate glass and Float glass. A brief description of each of them is given below.

Soda Lime glass: The chemical and physical property of this type of glass makes it suitable in use when visible light is involved. This type of glass transmit almost completely and being used as windowpanes from the olden days starting from the Roman period. One of the main disadvantages of soda lime glass is its relatively higher coefficient of expansion. Silica does not expand very greatly when heated. But, addition of soda has a dramatic effect on the increase in coefficient of expansion. This coefficient increases with higher content of soda ash. Because of this reason, soda lime glass has a poor capacity to withstand thermal shock.

Borosilicate glass: This type of glass, as the name indicates, is composed mainly of silica (70-80%) and boric oxide (7-13%) with smaller amount of alkalis in the form of sodium and potassium oxide as well as aluminum oxide. This type of glass shows good chemical durability and thermal shock resistance. Because of this reason, this type of glass is used in process plants of chemical industry, chemical laboratory equipments, injection ampoules, medicine vials etc. In home, this type of glass is to make ovenware and other heat-resistant kitchenware.

Float glass: The process of manufacturing Float glass developed by Pilkington Brothers in the United Kingdom in 1959. This is the principal method used to manufacture float glass all over the world. The glass produced has uniform thickness and has a bright fire-polished surface and does not require any grinding or polishing.

By understanding the way the different types of glass is manufactured and their distinctive property, it would be possible for you to find out the way for taking proper care of Commercial Glass.