ABSTRACT
Flat glass manufacturing is a key industrial process and has been subject to continuous development to achieve lower cost and higher quality since its transition from the craft of mouth-blown glass. Float glass is the dominant process for flat glass, while rolled plate remains in use for patterned (textured) glass and wired glass. Iron oxide in the raw materials gives the glass a light green colour, which has become standardised in Europe, but commonly produced glass in other parts of the world has a variety of tones. There are several 'low iron' glasses available that have a much whiter appearance. The fundamental characteristic of a glass is that it has an amorphous microstructure, meaning no shape or order, so no crystalline regions. Wired glass is produced by the rolling process, but with the flow of molten glass divided into two streams, one above the other, two ribbons of hot glass are brought together with wire mesh fed between the two.
