What are the advantages of float glass?

Answer 1

Soda glass is normal glass! it is the cheapest eg compared with pyrex glass for heat resistant ovenware. Strictly soda glass may be just sand and soda fused together.The soda makes the glass water-soluble, soft and not very durable. Therefore lime is added increasing the hardness and chemical durability and providing insolubility of the materials. Nobody makes just soda glass for centuries and over the years soda lime glass is often called just soda glass.

Soda-lime-glass, is the most prevalent type of glass, used for windowpanes, and glass containers (bottles and jars) for beverages, food, and some commodity items. Glass bakeware is often made of tempered soda-lime glass.

Soda-lime glass is prepared by melting the raw materials, such as sodium carbonate (soda), lime, dolomite, silicon dioxide (silica), aluminium oxide (alumina), and small quantities of fining agents (e.g., sodium sulfate, sodium chloride) in a glass furnace at temperatures locally up to 1675°C. The temperature is only limited by the quality of the furnace superstructure material and by the glass composition. Green and brown bottles are obtained from raw materials containing iron oxide. Relatively inexpensive minerals such as trona, sand, and feldspar are used instead of pure chemicals. The mix of raw materials is termed batch.

Soda-lime glass is divided technically into glass used for windows, called float glass or flat glass, and glass for containers, called container glass. Both types differ in the application, production method (float process for windows, blowing and pressing for containers), and chemical composition . Float glass has a higher magnesium oxide and sodium oxide content as compared to container glass, and a lower silica, calcium oxide, and aluminium oxide content.From this follows a slightly higher quality of container glass concerning the chemical durability against water, which is required especially for storage of beverages and food.

Source(s):retired chemistry examiner