How Float Glass is Made | This Old House

[@gankplank7809]

She’s kinda awesome, kept my attention on the entire video. Just like that man said, I learned a lot

[@jim1550]

More factory tours please.

[@kennethnuttle7251]

While not perfected, float glass was actually invented in the mid nineteenth century, around 1864

[@anonymouscommenter7689]

There's a glass factory like this close to where I live. They make glass 24/7/365, including holidays. They can't shut down, cuz once they do, it takes around 30 days to get the furnace up to temp. The part about how much natty gas is used is accurate.

[@tcphvacr9950]

Working in a glass factory is hot work, so for the people that are there, I tip my hat to you, you’ve earned your paycheck. It’s amazing the technology that is there to inspect the final product.

[@quinlanz92]

They didn't even show the really hot work, I work in a float plant in the furnace and replacing some of the blocks and burners in the furnace, it's a kind of heat you can't begin to explain. Wish I could say it came with a nice 70k a year paycheck but it doesn't. It beats doing some of the other jobs available though.

[@bryansautoandmotorcyclerepairs]

I also work in a furnace they call it hot end operator. You are rught about the heat when replacing the brick at the furnace its insane hear

[@BlackSwan912]

Absolutely the best “how it’s made” video ever.

[@Jono.]

This channel is awesome. I'm a mechanical engineer with a curiosity in all things. I've been down the rabbit hole of researching plumbing and Thermal Mixing Valves and Richard has shown me how to replace those and now I'm here once again after researching glass fabrication. Thanks for the video, it's difficult to visualize the glass over the molten tin when it is described at a high level.

[@Nail56]

Wow! That was fun. Wish the pix of the high temp areas could have been larger and more detailed but that's just a quibble. Thanx for that one!

[@georgefrench1907]

What a great primer in industrial glass-making. Rich had a fantastic guide to walk him through the process. Thank you.

[@drift19234]

I work at a place just like this and let me tell ya, the tech they have in places like that are insane.

[@Shuvaca]

I love this videos, they remind me of "How do they do it?" Please, keep them coming

[@N7801Z]

That brought back some nice memories of touring the PPG float glass plant in Carlisle, PA in 1980! We knew the plant manager and he gave us a first class, thorough tour.

[@charlesmoore456]

I think you meant to say "...he gave us a first glass, thorough tour." Hehe

[@Rob-to4mu]

Very cool. Feels like I'm back in school on a field trip.

[@brookepridemore7067]

She is a lovely and informative factory guide!

[@pilotandy_com]

I don't know about a glass factory per se, but I could certainly see myself working in a mirror factory.

[@Joshua79C]

What a glaring joke that was.

[@pilotandy_com]

@@Joshua79C A little too 'transparent'?

[@Joshua79C]

Lets not glaze this anymore.

[@stanervin6108]

Let's pause to reflect on that statement. 🤔👩‍🚒

[@pilotandy_com]

@@stanervin6108 lol! Love it!

[@anthonyhro1903]

ENJOYED!

[@TheZombieSaints]

Holy crap! That's amazing!

[@almondduchess6636]

Very cool! Glass is so mesmerizing.

[@ftchico1]

Wow. Great video

[@mpwall123]

Fascinating and mesmerizing

[@garyhopkins6337]

The glass was drawn before they came up with the technology of float, you could see ripple lines going through it so it looked like crap but it worked. I started my apprenticeship in 1971 and most glass used was drawn as it was cheaper than float and polished plate.

[@johnroberts9560]

Hi TOH , Merry Christmas Too All !! 🎅🎄🎁🎆⛄💮

[@technosasquatchfilms]

workers must have nightmares set to the sounds of shattering glass...

[@microdesigns2000]

I started working in a glass plant about six months ago. For the first few weeks the crashes freaked me out. Now I know from where to expect the crashes. If anything, it sounds like the worker is irritated and just chucking the glass into the recycle bin. But when I look, they are more like 'meh'. I think everybody who works there completely ignores that sound. It normally comes from areas where sizes are being cut from the glass, some of which are completely automated and some manual. Working in a glass plant is awesome. Safety is a big deal, as you can imagine. The panes we deal with are much much larger than the ones in this video.

[@technosasquatchfilms]

@@microdesigns2000 no worry about the glass dust?

[@microdesigns2000]

@@technosasquatchfilms I haven't seen any particles like that. The glass tends to break down to pretty large pieces, maybe the smallest about the size of a finger tip. When the bins are dumped, there is no powder or anything like that. Good question though. Next time I am by one of those, I'll take a closer look.

[@ZekeRushing]

I've worked in glass production for nearly a decade now. I could sleep through the sound of glass breaking now :(

[@justthebeginning1448]

That is so cool.

[@realvanman1]

That was neat. I would love to find glass made the way it used to be done. I love the subtle waviness of the glass in old windows, and would love to incorporate into a house.

[@spikefivefivefive]

Hobby Lobby carries small panes of it.

[@BFSilenceDogood]

Incredible

[@UgwokeChinedu]

I am so much excited to watch through this video, I have been looking for one. Pls can I access your contact. Yours sincerely 🙏

[@Steelman_Academy]

This is beautiful

[@punknhead23]

Great video!

[@BottleJackBuddy]

That was really cool to watch.

[@zoobie2000]

Interesting nice to see something more in depth

[@Skammerd]

You sent the plumber to a window factory? Meh. I love Rich! Who cares.

[@Muonium1]

If you have a very bright short wave ultraviolet light source and very good (and protected!) eyes, you can actually see which side of a common piece of float glass was the side floating on the bath of tin. A tiny portion of the liquid tin volatilizes and is absorbed some microns into the side of the glass touching it, imparting that side of the sheet with a distinct orange or hazy white fluorescence.

[@leifharmsen]

Float glass is for that new house. This old house has wavy antique glass.. show us how to make some of that please!

[@likearockcm]

Enjoyed watching them make it .Would like to see how they laminate it.

[@microdesigns2000]

Lamination is usually done by their customers. There are a couple of methods. I'd share how we do it, but then there's that non-disclosure agreement I signed...

[@punknhead23]

Really no big secret. Here is one of Cardinal's Laminating plants. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZipcq2Ag9mbkNU

[@likearockcm]

@@punknhead23 Interesting thanks

[@CesareVesdani]

I like photo frames with real glass front, so are photo frames still manufactured with real glass fronts?

[@ChainsawFPV]

I would like to point out how clean that factory is. Pride in your workplace says a lot about quality of a product.

[@wildman2012]

Good one!

[@Slaterandson]

Awesome video! Can’t imagine how hot it is in there!

[@vijay6543211]

Madam may I know what kind of glass u r doing, flint or crown. What is the refractive index . Can u provide me with 1 square foot 1 inch thick flint glass 👍 thank you..

[@Engineer9736]

Nice video indeed. And the video length is getting near something worthful again 👍

[@stbny4444]

what plant was that? what company?

[@withlovefromrussia]

Cardinal FG Menomonie, Wisconsin

[@sighpocket5]

Nice!!!!(awesome even!!!)

[@Kmher90]

Nice

[@agfdsa123]

How long it takes to make a 6' x 6' x ~6mm normal glass?

[@RagedContinuum]

130 and 144 are standard widths so a 6 foot section comes out every 15 seconds or so on a 6 mil run

[@jbravo36]

The float glass process was developed by Alistair pilkington here in St Helens Lancashire 🇬🇧 in 1952 . She could of at least mentioned it!

[@gooddypm]

Martin cowell don’t be daft! That would mean admitting ‘Merica didn’t invent something.

[@jbravo36]

@@gooddypm at least St Helens has some good things going for it

[@gooddypm]

Martin cowell not much else at the moment, well, apart from the rugby team.

[@jbravo36]

@@gooddypm are you St helener?

[@gooddypm]

Martin cowell Boltonian that has been here for 39 years nearly.

[@AshitakaYakul]

DOLOMITE BABY!

[@AlBeebe]

quality content

[@doingstuffwithdavid]

Our paper isn't toxic!

[@Micah__]

1:34 👃🏻 breathe it in !!!

[@aMoneyYell]

2:23 7th Calvary?! Kidding ;)

[@seikibrian8641]

* Cavalry. ("Calvary" is where Christ was crucified.)

[@jonowee]

Celsius, you win.

[@mikestubenvoll5708]

CAN I HAVE AN APPLICATION PLEASE

[@farizolganseng5121]

Its ok. The worst part when change size and need to adjust the air valve at anealling.

[@philipgwyn8091]

500,000 USD a month in natural gas !

[@microdesigns2000]

I know! I wonder how much glass that makes.

[@RealLuckless]

@@microdesigns2000 Hopefully more than $500,000 USD worth,...

[@dr.apollo4226]

@@RealLuckless I’m more concerned about the environmental impact. We’ve gotta find innovative ways to supply energy to manufacturing industries through renewable sources.

[@punknhead23]

@@microdesigns2000 about 19,000 tons a month.

[@sean2299]

They better clean up all the dust and stuff so no explosions happen hello osha

[@mpwall123]

How do they cool the glass? I may have missed it. Air and fans?

[@c31979839]

I was thinking the same thing. I would have thought there would have needed to be a longer cooling tunnel so not to introduce stress fractures into the glass.

[@jackielinde7568]

You have to be careful cooling glass. It has a brittle range where temperature differences in the glass can cause it to become brittle and shatter. It's called "Thermal Shock". I can't say how they cool it, but it's probably a similar process as in art glass: throttling the oven. When I would program my kiln for my art projects, I would set ramping up and ramping down rates to make sure the glass heated and cooled at a steady rate.

[@quinlanz92]

3:51 the machine they show it traveling down is approx 450ft in length and will take 15 minutes to an hour to travel down depending on the thickness. It uses massive fans which duct the air onto the glass surface as well as heating elements to perfectly control the cooling of the glass. And yes the glass is very brittle and sensitive to those temperature differences. Yes it breaks and sometimes more often than others. Today we had the ribbon break 2 times and we have to clean that glass up. There are days where we may have 14 breaks or even 30 minutes of breaks which is thousands of lbs of glass on the floor that you have to shovel out and up.

[@jackielinde7568]

I'm surprised they don't have an annealing step, but it might be hard to hold glass at the required temperature if it's one, long, extruded ribbon.

[@mikewest712]

I thought the same thing.I am sure they have incorporated something in their mix or the bake temp/time to keep from doing a conventional annealing process.

[@Furiends]

The process generally thought of as annealing only applies to crystalline substrata not glass which is amorphous. Thus there is no need to reheat and cool glass. Instead glass need only be cooled slowly to maximize the strength of its structure.

[@quinlanz92]

Annealing in glass manufacturing equivalent is called tempering and most float plants do it as well. (I work in the furnace at one)

[@Furiends]

@@quinlanz92 Yes. Tempering is the term I'm use to. Although this is slightly pedantic.

[@quinlanz92]

Not really, tempered glass is a phrase most are familiar with, ask a room with 100 people in it what annealing is and I bet maybe 10 of them know, and ask those ten how annealing glass impacts glass and maybe 6 will associate tempered glass as the final product of the process. Pedantic, no. Lacking any significance to the world, sure.

[@cyberbadger]

Dolomite is my name, making good glass is my game.

[@itsthatonekid6188]

Robots have really taken over

[@ImTheJoker4u]

Nope Mexicans stole yer jerbs!!!!!

[@Engineer9736]

You have never seen any episode of “How it’s made”? Every episode of that program shows factories like this.

[@silverSScamaro]

it's only begun

[@ROGER2095]

And be thankful for that!

[@adamkendall997]

If automation was going to take our jobs away it would have happened over 40 years ago. Robots just allow us to have more cheap junk than ever before.

[@1957mrbill]

what is the companies name?

[@anricedeybat]

Cardinal Glass

[@adamkendall997]

Would you look at that? Just look at it!

[@kangkim150]

Kyle's police station identity is Looking Glass.

[@smallmoneysalvia]

Dude let the lady talk!

[@moler646445]

lol

[@busog97641]

Funny, I thought the same thing.

[@Ryan74777]

She’s not talking SHE’S YELLING

[@punknhead23]

@@Ryan74777 well it's noisy in a factory!

[@JoshHenderson16]

Is that the God Warrior from Wife Swap?

[@themadzucchini]

They add Iron to their glass? I thought people didn't want iron because it makes the glass green?

[@adamstephens1371]

That guy makes $27 an hour to pull glass from the furnace to show tourists

[@thedolphin5428]

Boy, that woman's voice would strip paint off a car body.

[@Furiends]

I was just thinking holy hell half a million in natural gas. If you look at charts it looks like industry is particularly efficient with its use of electricity. However its masked by the fact that generally where its inefficient its because its fuel use and not electricity use. If you wanted to dump a bunch of your solar PV overgeneration into something there it is.

[@jackielinde7568]

Here's a few things to keep in mind: 1. This varies by the type of glass, but usually glass gets soft (slumps and takes mold shapes) around 1200 to 1300 deg F (about 648 to 704 Deg C). Glass gets tacky (sticks to things and other bits of glass) around 1300 to 1500 deg F (around 704 to 816 deg C). Glass doesn't reach its molten state until around 2400 to 2500 deg F (about 1316 to 1371 deg C). Needless to say, even on small scales (like the art glass I worked with) this requires a lot of energy. 2. One of the "holy grail" of green tech is finding a way to use solar energy in large scale manufacturing processes like this one. Notice I said the word "finding", because we don't have that tech yet. Sure, there are plenty of electric kilns that can get that hot from electrical power, but they don't scale up well, and they weren't designed for extended use that you see here. 3. Solar has its own set of challenges: I did see a video of a "proof of concept" where a solar farm was used to heat up a cauldron, but it wasn't a "solar to electricity to heat" system. Instead, the solar farm aimed all the reflected energy to a point that heated up a heat conducting solution, and that solution was transported to the cauldron. Likely, and solution to the problem of using solar for industrial manufacturing is going to use this method over converting into and out of electricity. Which brings another problem, because plants like this one run 24-7 because restarting the line is incredibly time and money consuming with a lot of waste product until the line is started. So, they'll have to find a way to overcome the lack of sunlight on nights and stormy days. 4. You misunderstand the inefficiencies in both systems. When people talk about the inefficiencies of burning fossil fuels, it's usually in respect to running an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). ICEs tend to convert most of the energy from the burnt fuel (about 70%) into heat, with the remainder going into kinetic energy to push a piston. That heat is a waste product, since it can't be used to make kinetic energy. An electric motor is far more efficient because it creates less waste heat. HOWEVER, this plant isn't using the natural gas to push a piston for mechanical energy. It's specifically after the heat and not any other form of energy from the natural gas. In this case, the efficiency equation gets flipped because heat is no longer the waste product. I suspect you get far more heat energy from a unit of natural gas than you do from a unit of electricity. (I'd need to look that up.) And this doesn't take into account for the inefficiencies built into things like the power grid stepping up and down the voltage for transmission or the fact that Photovoltaic panels only turn about 105 to 15% of sunlight into electricity. Thus, for this factory, LNG is probably way more efficient than other methods of generating Don't get me wrong. I do want to see the day we don't need Oil for anything but as a material for resins. But the tech isn't there for all applications, and electricity isn't going to be the most efficient options.

[@adamkendall997]

The acreage required to do this with solar would eliminate so many trees that it would be doing more damage.

[@Furiends]

@@adamkendall997 I'm not sure why people think its an "intuitive" argument to just make up the idea that solar would take up more space. Have you seen a shale oil and gas field? Here you go: www.flickr.com/photos/ddimick/8948795874 Does that look small to you? Is solar somehow notorious for taking up a lot of space? The oil sands can go on your roof top but it won't generate electricity but solar can!

[@Furiends]

@@jackielinde7568 YT didn't show me your comment until now. The type of solar power you mention that is direct thermal storage is called a molten salt solar reactor and absolutely this could be used if the investments were made into industrial scale plants for industry. I only mentioned PV because it was a segway. Frankly we could be doing this today. The technology behind molten salt solar is solid and mature plus it can also store energy so it can run through the entire work day. The issue here is exactly the same as the issue with the lack of a dynamic grid and the lack of large scale renewable projects. You mention that solar doesn't scale well. But I am not sure what you base this on. I would tend to disagree and instead point to the fact that the US infrastructure is incredibly old. Why is it old? Because we aren't making any new investments. Coastal states could be primarily power via tidal wave and and tidal wind but such projects require public investment. Individuals or tax incentives can't make that happen. Regarding efficiency I was making an admittedly vague reference to these charts: flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/energy/us/Energy_US_2012.png Yes I understand the heat is mostly recovered and used in the process and yes rejected energy only includes energy that actually wasn't useful. Take a look at how under transportation there is a massive amount of rejected energy. Whereas under industry the ratio is by far the smallest. Now lets take a look at the chart for 2018. flowcharts.llnl.gov/content/assets/images/energy/us/Energy_US_2018.png Largely the reason for this is the lack of regulation on natural gas and a lot of the reject is leaking gas not heat loss.

[@Furiends]

@OldPossum en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_small_decisions

[@DanBurgaud]

I am assuming this is like Part 1 of a series on Glass Windows.

[@gwartard]

How many glasses of whiskey did she have to keep her nerves down?

[@sinixodair]

2:20 Unexpected KKK cameo

[@SamSamuylik]

$0.20 a second to run that furnace. (If they run it 24/7)

[@AgentOffice]

Why's it float

[@microdesigns2000]

Glass is floated on tin because the surface is very smooth and the glass does not need to be polished after it hardens.

[@punknhead23]

Tin is more dense than glass. The glass floats on the tin like oil on water.

[@purpleidea]

What the heck is "EP DUST" ?

[@jesseherman2453]

purplevideotube Electrostatic Precipitate It’s the particulates from the dust collector.

[@natefrancis3698]

Sure hope OSHA doesn’t watch this. Silica dust at 1:34 and hearing protection not worn shortly after that.

[@tracycolorado]

Might be a Canadian Company . used Celsius temperature instead of Fahrenheit

[@ratdude747]

@@tracycolorado Canada is even stricter.

[@Furiends]

That would only apply if a worker has to work down there continuously without a respirator.

[@quinlanz92]

Testing is done periodically to test the silica content in the air (friable). OSHA has limits on the amount in the air and exposure times. Judging by how clean that batch house was it isn't an issue there. I work in a batch house and can tell you from experience. They don't just do a visual inspection, they use some fancy expensive equipment to perform the testing, plus they will have operators wear a device as well to get an idea of the exposure received while performing different tasks

[@dbaider9467]

Everything was great - recycle, recycle, recycle - up until the end when the acre of plastic wrap was used for packaging. Pity.

[@ThePyroWaffles]

Did you see her face when he asked to touch it and decided to lift it?

[@parker1ray]

ommpa loompa

[@rutgerhoutdijk3547]

I wonder if they recycle any of the glass

[@Engineer9736]

Watch the video and you’ll find out

[@firennice]

We're going to recycle that, we're going to recycle that, we're going.....

[@hotsauce2007]

we need an audio editor, the volume of her voice is too high 😂

[@everycoLor_312]

NAAAAH, DATS JUS WISCONSIN, YA HEY DERE!

[@Engineer9736]

Look up the manual of your device, there should be something in it about volume controls.

[@alextotheroh8071]

OH HEY DER BUD, BROUGHT A COUPLE TWO TREE BREWSKIS WITCHA HUH

[@willdogsdroid]

That's a big glass woman if I've ever seen one!

[@CyberSnypa]

Ill think of you when I look through the window. Not quite the best wording

[@craigbenson2047]

Her voice kills me😩

[@Engineer9736]

She probably also watches this video and then reads your comment.. Not so gently to say that

[@craigbenson2047]

@@Engineer9736 so does your comments...

[@c31979839]

Why would you even comment that? Comment sections need less useless hate, not more. You are the toxicity that has ruined KZbin mate.

[@troymarinos4211]

I thought she did a great job, very clear and concise!

[@Engineer9736]

Craig Benson Nothing wrong with my comments

[@rogerszeto8419]

Hot! Don't touch!

[@realvanman1]

$500,000 per month in natural gas! Wow! That happens to be an excellent illustration of just how horribly wasteful recycling is. Imagine how much it takes to make a new bottle from one that was smashed after just one use, compared to washing and reusing that same bottle.

[@mfbfreak]

Reusing things is often the best (not with plastic bottles though). But that broken glass bottle can also be used as feedstock for fibre glass production. They need feedstock anyway, and they might as well use broken bottles and windows to lower their environmental impact.

[@ALPACABOWLCOMPANY]

Half a million dollars in natural gas a month....

[@maylabear]

No hard hat???

[@southjerseysound7340]

Seriously not every factory or commercial space requires a hard hat.

[@sherannaidoo2712]

I'm sure Jan will float......

[@loueckert4970]

How cool, oh wait, so hot!

[@louiscatoire3269]

Good video but the guy is irritating by repeating things and adding his own idiotic comments. The woman gives a good description of each step.

[@jameslewis1437]

Jesus that ladies voice is killing my ears.

[@s0uthp4w68]

That glass is cheap. Look at a cross-section of all the sheets standing up on the pallet . Notice how dark it is. The glass is not optically clear. It has way too much iron in it. Don't get me wrong the process of making float glass is pretty cool but If your sole product is windows, don't cheap out on the glass.

[@tmx1911]

They are making window glass, not telescopes. I don't think that really matters for it's intended application.

[@shiyiyin3403]

KKK Hood? Lol