Glass Industry

Glass Industry Graphite Solutions 

Most consumers have probably never considered the relationship between carbon graphite and the glass industry. Actually graphite is the ideal material for glass manufacturing due to its physical and chemical composition properties. If you’ve ever witnessed glass blowing, you may have an idea why graphite material is so useful in this industry. It has to do with the amazing property of graphite:

High heat and thermal shock resistance

Minimized carbon dust contamination of the glass

High mechanical strength and chemical resistance

Excellent corrosion resistance

Low oxidation

Molten Glass is Hot and Sticky--but Not to Carbon Graphite

Molten glass will stick to almost anything, but it will not stick to carbon graphite. Graphite material’s non-wetting properties mean that it is ideal for coming into contact with molten glass without any adherence. Additionally, carbon graphite is a lubricating material often used as a deliberately wearing part in machinery. This means there is no need for oil or other lubricants when graphite tools are used to mold or shape glass. Once the glass is cooled, it can be removed easily from a graphite mold. 

Furthermore, graphite can withstand high temperature. Glass becomes molten around 1500°C or higher. Many materials that may be used as molds just don’t stand up well to those high temperatures. Graphite can take the heat, and the stickiness.

For our customers in the glass and refractory industries, everything revolves around the melting and molding processes. With the increasing demands on material purity, surface quality, precision, design, energy and cost efficiency, the requirements for becoming more challenging. The focus is increasingly on graphite.

In the production of technical glass, laboratory glass, pharmaceutical glass, tube glass, container glass or hollow glass, the materials have to comply with many parameters such as purity, precision, physiological safety, dimensional accuracy, energy and cost efficiency. In order to ensure a constant quality of the glass product, all materials that come into contact with hot glass must withstand high challenges and work reliably. Graphite is a material with a wide range of applications and meets all requirements for the glass industry. The most complex shapes of special glass can be obtained by blowing glass using special graphite molds. Pure graphite forms are also the only material suitable for the formation of high purity quartz vessels.

We manufacture graphite and CFC products, which are distinguished by low thermal conductivity, very high density and resistance to oxidation. The highest quality of our materials will result in the efficiency of your work and improve the quality of manufactured glass products. The high density of graphite makes it highly resistant to abrasion - thanks to that, no dust or any other impurities are formed, even under high loads or high temperatures. All these parameters make your work more efficient, because our graphite provides long service life.

1. Graphite for Container Glass Manufacture 

For producing technical glass, laboratory glass, inspection glass or domestic glass, the key requirements after the melting process are dimensional accuracy, optical perfection, purity,  and consistent quality. Our carbon fiber-reinforced carbon (C/C or CFC) products and isostatic graphite play an important role in achieving the best results in a cost-effective manner.

Main products: graphite contact elements such as graphite grippers/graphite take-out inserts, guide rails, sliders, blow molds, conveyor channels, slide triangles. 

Graphite molds for blowing glass combines the wood molds with advantages of graphite. The porous structure stores water that forms a moisture vapor film as the molten glass is introduced. During the glass blowing process, the vapor formed ensures freedom of contact between the graphite and the melt. 

Graphite contact elements such as graphite grippers (also called graphite take-out inserts) or guides transport the hot fragile glass products to the dead plates and cooling ovens. 

2. Graphite profiles and barriers for manufacturing large float glass 

Float glass requires consistent high quality, flawless appearance, high precision, and the highest purity. Our graphite components for manufacturing large float glass are excellent. Our maid products includes graphite profiles and barriers, sometime in extreme lengths, for tin bath walls. 

3. Graphite Components for Manufacturing quartz glass

We have extensive experience in designing and processing graphite parts used in the quartz glass industry in which high purity graphite is of great importance. 

4. Graphite Mold for Hot Bending Glass Production

Hot curved glass (also known as curved glass, or hot bending glass) can be made into a variety of curved surface and complex appearance according to the requirements. It can meet the high quality needs of modern architectural decoration, smart phones, cars and customized furniture and other fields with beautiful style, beautiful lines and other characteristics.

Hot bending glass is a hot bending glass product that places the cut flat glass in a hot bending mold designed according to the bending arc, and then heats the glass to soften it, and then presses the softened glass through the mold to form a specific curved surface. The hot bending mold is a key component in the production of hot bending glass, which is directly related to the surface finish, dimensional accuracy, production cost and efficiency of hot bending glass. Therefore, the material selection of hot bending molds should meet the requirements of high temperature, bending strength, small high temperature creep, good high temperature, oxidation resistance, no infiltration with glass, high thermal conductivity, easy processing and polishing, and suitable thermal expansion coefficient.

At present, graphite material has become the main mold material for hot bending of curved glass due to its comprehensive properties such as good thermal conductivity, easy processing and non-deformation.