Glass molded like plastic could usher in new era of complex glass shapes

[JacksinPA]

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/glass-molded-plastic-could-usher-new-era-complex-shapes [subscription]

The production of glass—one of humanity’s oldest materials—is getting a 21st century makeover. A new approach to glassmaking treats the material like plastic, allowing scientists to injection mold vaccine vials, sinuous channels for carrying out lab chemistry, and other complex shapes.

“It’s a really exciting paper,” says André Studart, a materials scientist at ETH Zürich. “This is a great way to form glass into complicated and interesting geometries.”

Glass was first produced in Egypt and eastern Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C.E. Then, as now, the material was made by melting silicon dioxide, or silica, at about 2000°C, and then using a variety of techniques to shape it. Modern glassmaking techniques can readily mass produce certain shapes, such as flat windowpanes and rounded bottles, but they can’t mass produce the intricate designs needed for modern biomedical instruments.
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Molten glass is a a liquid. It's odd that apparently they are just getting around to injection molding it. I thought that was an old technique just used for plastic items.

 

[Cordelier]

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/glass-molded-plastic-could-usher-new-era-complex-shapes [subscription]

The production of glass—one of humanity’s oldest materials—is getting a 21st century makeover. A new approach to glassmaking treats the material like plastic, allowing scientists to injection mold vaccine vials, sinuous channels for carrying out lab chemistry, and other complex shapes.

“It’s a really exciting paper,” says André Studart, a materials scientist at ETH Zürich. “This is a great way to form glass into complicated and interesting geometries.”

Glass was first produced in Egypt and eastern Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C.E. Then, as now, the material was made by melting silicon dioxide, or silica, at about 2000°C, and then using a variety of techniques to shape it. Modern glassmaking techniques can readily mass produce certain shapes, such as flat windowpanes and rounded bottles, but they can’t mass produce the intricate designs needed for modern biomedical instruments.
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Molten glass is a a liquid. It's odd that apparently they are just getting around to injection molding it. I thought that was an old technique just used for plastic items.

I think the main problem is that the protective coating for the molds (being made from Platinum and Iridium) wasn't very cost effective. I'm guessing that they've developed a cheaper alternative.

 

[bluesmoke]

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/glass-molded-plastic-could-usher-new-era-complex-shapes [subscription]

The production of glass—one of humanity’s oldest materials—is getting a 21st century makeover. A new approach to glassmaking treats the material like plastic, allowing scientists to injection mold vaccine vials, sinuous channels for carrying out lab chemistry, and other complex shapes.

“It’s a really exciting paper,” says André Studart, a materials scientist at ETH Zürich. “This is a great way to form glass into complicated and interesting geometries.”

Glass was first produced in Egypt and eastern Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C.E. Then, as now, the material was made by melting silicon dioxide, or silica, at about 2000°C, and then using a variety of techniques to shape it. Modern glassmaking techniques can readily mass produce certain shapes, such as flat windowpanes and rounded bottles, but they can’t mass produce the intricate designs needed for modern biomedical instruments.
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Molten glass is a a liquid. It's odd that apparently they are just getting around to injection molding it. I thought that was an old technique just used for plastic items.

Glass is an amorphous solid, neither a solid or a liquid. This material contains polyvinyl butyral (PVB), which has elastic properties, and is used as the filament sandwiched in auto windshields. It helps with the brittleness problem they are still having a problem to prevent cracking too easily and must solve to make commercially feasible. As if liquid, the glass panes hundreds of yrs ago for windows would become thicker at the bottom after a few hundred yrs. So am I, in record time.

 

[JacksinPA]

Glass is an amorphous solid, neither a solid or a liquid. This material contains polyvinyl butyral (PVB), which has elastic properties, and is used as the filament sandwiched in auto windshields. It helps with the brittleness problem they are still having a problem to prevent cracking too easily and must solve to make commercially feasible. As if liquid, the glass panes hundreds of yrs ago for windows would become thicker at the bottom after a few hundred yrs. So am I, in record time.

Glass in the solid state is a super-cooled fluid. In the molten state it is a fluid which can flow. PVB is sandwiched between layers of glass.

 

[bluesmoke]

Glass in the solid state is a super-cooled fluid. In the molten state it is a fluid which can flow. PVB is sandwiched between layers of glass.

Those are temporary states. In it's final and life state, it is an amorphous solid. I don't know how PVB is used in this process. It seems not as a sandwiched layer but rather somehow combines with other elements.

 

[Antiwar]

We need to get away from using plastics. Hopefully this is a major step in that direction.