The Future of Glass
“ A glass is an example, probably the simplest example, —Dr. Harrowell of the truly complex.”
Glasses By Marc Newson Client: Iittala
Contents 06
Introduction
08
20
Production
Characteristics
History, Ingredients
Transparent, Reuse,
Structure, Handmade
Temperature, Colors, Hard, Flexible, Texture, Shape, Display, Glass Types
30
42
Glass Art
New Technology
Dale Chihuly, Josiah
Wearable Glass, Techno
McElheny, Tony Cragg,
Sound Wall, Display
Kiki Smith, Cesar
products, Electrochromic Rear View Mirro
56
New Life Style
The Future of Glass 7
Introduction The glass artist Dale Chihuly ones said “You have to listen to the glass.� Glass is the material that can be found everywhere in our daily life with a variety of physical forms. It can be as fragile as eggshell and harder than steel. It can be a beautiful art piece and a indispensable daily necessities. This book exploring this special material from its history, production process, scharacteristic, and new technology to the future applications.
Production History, Ingredients, Structure, Technology, glassblowing
“ Glass was always one of the most collected of materials since it was first made. The Egyptians valued it as much as jewels.�
The Future of Glass 11
Glass is made from Sand, Gypsum, Soda Ash, Limestone and Dolomite. The volcanic glass obsidian has been used by many Stone Age societies across the globe for the production of sharp cutting tools. The ancient Roman historian Pliny suggested that Phoenician merchants had made the first glass in the region of Syria around 5000 B.C. However, according to the archaeological evidence, the first man-made glass was in Eastern Mesopotamia and Egypt around 3500 B.C. Glass was took as a luxury material. The first glass vessels were made about 1500BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. For the next 300 years, the glass industry was increased rapidly and then
declined. For the next 500 years, Egypt, Syria and countries along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Creation of glass is an art that is old as some of the oldest civilizations of humanity. Even though the original recipe for creating a glass did not change much over the past few thousand years, modern technology and chemistry enabled glassmakers to infuse their products with many new abilities. Most common glass has other ingredients added to change its properties. For example the lead glass or flint glass. The ingredients increased refractive index causes noticeably more specular reflection and increased optical dispersion. New chemical glass compositions or new treatment
The Future of Glass 13
techniques can be initially investigated in small scale laboratory experiments. The raw materials for laboratory-scale glass melts are often different from those used in mass production because the cost factor has a low priority. The glassblowing technique was invented during the 1st century B.C. by the glassmakers of Syria. A person who blows glass is called a glassblower. This revolutionary technique made glass production easier and quickly. The development of the mold-blowing technique has enabled the speedy production of glass objects in large quantity. As glassblowing process became well known, different cultures, religious adapted it and became a favorite glass made method.
The Future of Glass 15
Important dates in the history of glass 4500 B.C. to 3000 B.C. Glass first used—Egypt and Mesopotamia 1500 B.C. First glass vessels made—Egypt 200 B.C. Glass blowing invented—the near East 600 A.D. Stained glass windows introduced—Constantinople 1674 A.D. Lead crystal invented by George Ravenscroft—England 1688 A.D. Cast plate glass—France 1690 A.D. First glassworks in Ireland 1827 A.D. Glass pressed into moulds—U.S.A. 1851 A.D. Crystal Palace built—London 1874 A.D. Glass toughened by oil quenching—France 1886 A.D. First semi-automated bottle maker—England 1903 A.D. First automatic bottle making machine invented—U.S.A. 1903 A.D. Chance discovery of laminated glass by Benedictus—France 1915 A.D. Invention of borosilicate glass—U.S.A. 1937 A.D. Photosensitive glass invented by Dalton—U.S.A. 1957 A.D. Glass ceramic made by accident by Stookey—U.S.A. —By Vishwas Purohit
Murano Glass Bowl Produced by Murano
The Press and Blow process > 900,000 units per day
Gob dropped into blank mould
Plunger presses blank shape
Blank pressed
Blank shape
Blank transferred to blow mould
Final shape blown
Finished jar
The Future of Glass 17
The Blow and Blow process > 200,000 units per day
Gob dropped into blank mould
Neck formed
Blank blown
Blank shape
Blank transferred to blow mould
Final shape blown
Finished bottle
Characteristics Transparent, Reuse, Temperature, Colors, Hard, Flexible, Texture, Shape, Display, Glass Types
Glass materials have a random, liquid-like (non crystalline) molecular structure. There are several different types of glass in use, each with a different chemical composition. They are excellent thermal insulators and electrical insulators, and have high dielectric strength. At ordinary temperatures, glass materials are relatively strong, inert, biologically inactive, and corrosion resistant. The following paragraphs are going to introduce the main characteristics of glass.
Transparent Why is glass transparent? The answer is: when the electrons in molecules is unable to absorb the energy of incident photon,photon continues the path called transmission. Now there is a new technology that make you can’t even see the reflections. Anti-reflective glass offers a significant reduction in disturbing reflections. Normal glass reflects 8% of light. Antireflective glass cuts this down to just 1%. It made invisible display products become possible. Reuse Glass can be reuse, the process called Glass recycling that turning waste glass into usable products. Glass waste should be separated by
The Future of Glass 21
chemical composition, and then, depending on the end use and local processing capabilities, might also have to be separated into different colors. Many recyclers collect different colors of glass separately since glass retains its color after recycling. The most common types used for consumer containers are colorless glass, green glass, and brown/amber glass. Temperature Glass can stand a wild range of temperature changing. You might wonder at what temperature does glass melt? Depending on it’s composition, some glass will melt at temperatures as low as 500 °C (900 °F), others melt at 1650 °C (3180 °F). Glass-ceramic materials share many proper-
Fused silica glass, vitreous silica glass has very low thermal expansion, is very hard and resists high temperatures (1000-1500ºC). It is also the most resistant against weathering. It is used for high temperature applications such as furnace tubes, melting crucibles, etc. Colors Color in glass may be obtained by addition of electrically charged ions (or color centers) that are homogeneously distributed, and by precipitation of finely dispersed particles. Most colored glass used in the art market is manufactured in volume by vendors who serve this market although there are some glass makers with the ability to make their own color from raw materials.
Water Carafe Designer: Jose Viana Client: Proto Design
Hard Borosilicate glass often called “Hard Glass,” mainly consists of silica and boron oxide. Borosilicate glass is known for being less dense than ordinary glass and for having very low coefficients of thermal expansion, making it resistant to thermal shock than any other common glass. Flexible Gorilla Glass, manufactured by Corning, is an alkali-aluminosilicate sheet glass engineered specifically to be thin, light and damage-resistant. Its primary application is portable electronic devices with screens, such as mobile phones, portable media players, and laptop displays. Gorilla Glass’s most useful qualities are its strength,
scratch resistance and thinness. According to Jonathan Ive of Apple, speaking on the iPhone 4, which uses Gorilla Glass, it is “comparable in strength to sapphire crystal but about thirty times harder than plastic.” Texture, Shape, Display Glass has variety of physical forms. It can be easy made into different shapes and textures. It can has a mirror surface or become a 2D, 3D display platform.The reflective surface is made up of a blend of silver nitrate, ammonia, caustic soda and distilled water. With different materials and production process, glass can have different characteristics. The following page will introduce the types of glass.
The Future of Glass 23
Glass Types Embedded glass has embedded wire for resistance heating or reinforcement. Tempered glass provides increased strength and can shatter into small pieces when broken. Borosilicate glass offers superior durability, chemical, and heat resistance, which make it suitable for use in chemical processes, in the pharmaceutical industry, in high-powered lamps, for cookware and other heat-resistant products. Soda lime glass is used in everyday products such as bottles, jars, and window glass. Lead glass (also called lead-alkali glass) has a high percentage of lead oxide to increase its index of refraction. It is relatively soft, a better electrical insulator than soda-lime or borosilicate glass, and used for optical applications such as prisms and lenses. Opal glass is used to diffuse light uniformly. Electronic glass is used in fabricating electronic components such as X-ray tubes, display devices, and chip components.
The Future of Glass 25
“ Glass is fragile, but that’s one of the reasons why people like to collect it. There’s something about its fragility that intrigues you. You move it the wrong way and it’s all over.”
—Dale Chihuly
Optical glasses, this kind of glass will be found in scientific instruments, microscopes, fighter aircraft and most commonly in spectacles.
The Future of Glass 27
Glass Art Dale Chihuly, Josiah McElheny Tony Cragg, Kiki Smith, Cesar
“ I know if I go down the glass shop right now and work down there, I’m going to make something that has never been made before. That in itself is an inspiration.” —Dale Chihuly
Glass art is usually understood to refer to large modern works of art, typically one-off creations, which are substantially or wholly made in glass. Glass art is distinguished from “art glass” and “studio glass” which are typically smaller and often made in editions of many identical pieces, but the boundaries are not clear-cut. Glass art is more likely to be exhibited in public spaces rather than in homes. Glass is a flexable material for many artists.The famous artists such as the American glass artist Dale Chihuly, Josiah McElheny, British visual artist Tony Cragg, and American feminist artist Kiki Smith uses glass to make sculptures and installation art works.
Float Seires Dale Chihuly Installation in Japan
The Future of Glass 31
Visible men 47x16 cm Tony Cragg
The Future of Glass 33
Black Eggs Kiki Smith Glass with acid wash 98 eggs, 4.4x7.6x5.7 to 8.3x12.1x8.9 cm each
The Future of Glass 35
Island Univers Palacio de Cristal, Madrid Josiah McElheny
The Future of Glass 37
Compression Cesar 37x23x24 cm
The Future of Glass 39
New Technology Wearable Glass, Techno Sound Wall, Display products, Electrochromic Rear View Mirro
Glass really has no boundaries in its applications nor in the products that can be produced from it. It can be as fragile as eggshell and harder than steel. And there are now fabrics which 54% glass! It is used for reflecting light, It is hard to describe how bright these fabrics are, When applied over a large area, for example, a whole jacket. They make the wearer glow like a lightbulb. It has excellent safty advantages, unaffected by temperature variation and can be dry cleand. However, the raw material for outdoor by 3M as a safety material for outdoor garments needing a high degree of visibility. And with 30,000 glass beads in every cm2, this fabric reflects light in an astonishing way.
The Future of Glass 43
Wearable Glass Black Label Range Designer: Neil Barret
Industrial designers are always looking to new materials to help reproduce real sound. The special aspect of this innovative products, Glass Sound Loudspeakers, is transferring of a natural to a new context. It is so much that a piece of flat, square glass can look so technically and visually stunning. It is more that this piece of hard, transparent, inert material can be used to produce sound. The products also can be tailored to customer’s requirements. This loudspeakers have panels of laminated glass and use flat membrane technology. The essential part of the speaker is the glass panel, which acts as the resonator. This part is then covered by the decorative CD.
The Future of Glass 45
Techno Sound Wall Designer: Karl-Otto Platz
The Future of Glass 47
“ Alice was through the glass, and had jumped lightly down into the Looking-glass room.” —Lewis Carroll
Nowadays, from liquid crystal display TVs to cell phones and beyond, today’s consumer electronics call for clear, vibrant images. Innovative display products, by using glass as the new material, help manufacturers improve the form capabilities, and environmental friendliness of their electronic devices. For example the performance display glass developed to enable cutting-edge tech, including organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and next generation liquid crystal displays (LCD) by providing a stable and reliable platform from start to finish. The end result is a thin, portable display device that consumes less power while delivering superior picture quality.
The Future of Glass 49
Electrochromic Rear View Mirror
The Future of Glass 51
The intelligent mirror which made in glass! For over a thousand years, mirrors have Electrochromics are materials that darken according to the amount of light they receive. In this case they work by employing optical sensing devices to control the transmission of light through glass.Electrochromic glass has found a home in increasingly more sophisticated car interiors. Gentex are a leading company in this field with a number of applications, from interiors automatic dimming rear view mirrors that changes from bright to dim, eliminating glare, to an exterior mirror that incorporates an LED turn signal. This technology can also be applied to windows which automatically darken with coming light. Block Lamp Harrt Koskinen
“ Glass it self is so much like water, If you let it go on its own, it almost ends up looking like something that came from the sea.” —Dale Chihuly
The Future of Glass 53
The Future of Glass 55
New Life Style
As R. W. Douglas and S. Frank stated in their book “A History of Glassmaking” in 1972: Life without glass is difficult to imagine; glass windows allow light from the sun to brighten our buildings, but they also help keep our rooms warm in winte. Everywhere we see, there is something made out of glass. The glass door, the glass pipes, the glass tiles, just about a lot in everything. There are going to have more and more products made in glass that brings convenience and beauty into our life. The Corning company provides us a vision of the future with specialty glass at the heart of it. You can watch the video, A Day Made of Glass, here: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jZkHpNnXLB0
Harpa, Iceland Reykjavík concert hall
The Future of Glass 57
The Future of Glass 59
The Future of Glass 61
Sources BOOKS
WEBSITES
Glass / Chris Lefteri. Mies : Hove : RotoVision, c2002v
www.corning.com en.harpa.is www.wylchina.com www.etsy.com www.fivesgroup.com en.wikipedia.org www.globalspec.com www.buzzle.com jecilin.glass.com.cn www.nipic.com www.historyofglass.com
Dale Chihuly : 365 days. New York : Abrams, 2008 Chihuly In The Hotshop Seattle, Wash. : Portland Press, c2007 Glasstress Milano ; New York : Charta, c2009. A Space For An Island Universe Madrid: MNCARS, 2009
Karen Millen Designer: Brinkworth Client: Karen Millen
The Future of Glass Shuo-Chun Chueh (Chelsea) School / Academy of Art University Course / GR 601: Type Systems Instructor / David Hake Typeface / Helvetica Neue Printer / Blurb Paper / ProLine Uncoated