Types of Glass at a Glance,
Definition and Structure

Technical glass is used wherever components must function reliably – even under high temperatures, chemical stress, or electrical voltage. This includes, for example, sight and viewing glasses in plants, laboratory glassware, glass tubes, insulators, special plates, or housings in electrical engineering.

Compared to classic household glass, technical glasses are often more chemically resistant, more resistant to thermal shock, and more mechanically durable. This is achieved through targeted raw material formulas (e.g., borosilicate glass) and a precisely controlled melting and fining process.

For glass manufacturers, this means: only when temperature control, flow in the molten bath, and furnace design are perfectly coordinated can the required properties be consistently maintained.

Our glass furnaces are designed precisely for this – with optimized tank and firing concepts, adaptable heating, and efficient energy use. Thus, we create the basis for you to produce sophisticated technical glasses stably, economically, and with consistently high quality.

Optical glass places particularly high demands on purity, homogeneity, and refractive index. Whether for eyeglass lenses, camera lenses, microscopes, or precision optics – even the smallest streaks, bubbles, or stresses in the glass make the difference between standard quality and a high-end product.

Therefore, during melting, it's not just the formula that matters, but above all, an absolutely stable and precisely controllable melting process.

For optical glasses, temperature profiles, residence times, flow conditions, and fining must work together perfectly. Only in this way can molten glass baths with uniform composition and minimal inhomogeneities be created. Our glass furnaces support this requirement through precisely controllable heating, optimized tank hydraulics, and a furnace geometry designed for optical qualities. In addition, special conditioning zones allow for fine adjustment of the glass viscosity and temperature before the outlet.

The result: stable process conditions that form the basis for our customers to produce optical glasses with a defined refractive index, high transparency, and reproducible quality.

Glassware and kitchen glass have to withstand a lot in everyday life: frequent washing, temperature jumps between the refrigerator, room temperature, and hot liquids, as well as impacts and scratches. At the same time, the glass should remain clear, brilliant, and permanently attractive – whether it's a drinking glass, bowl, storage jar, or heat-resistant casserole dish.

For this, glass manufacturers primarily rely on robust soda-lime glass and – for more demanding applications – on borosilicate qualities with higher thermal shock resistance. The crucial factor is that the glass recipe must be processed in the furnace in such a way that the shape, surface, and stability are reliably correct later on.

To achieve this, melting furnaces with stable temperatures, homogeneous melt pools, and precise conditioning before further processing are required. Our furnace concepts are designed to enable high throughputs for mass-produced products with consistent quality – from clear standard glasses to colored or specially finished kitchen glassware. This is how we create the foundation for manufacturers to produce durable, everyday glassware that impresses the end customer in daily use.

Glass containers must perform several tasks simultaneously: they must safely protect contents, present them in a high-quality manner, and at the same time meet the requirements of filling lines, logistics, and retail. Whether it's bottles for beverages, jars for food, vials for pharmaceutical products, or pots and flacons for cosmetics – packaging glass must be robust, leak-proof, dimensionally stable, and light-resistant.

In addition, depending on the application, there are special glass colors for better light protection, defined wall thicknesses, and high dimensional accuracy for closures and dosing systems. To produce such container glass in large quantities and with consistent quality, reliable melting furnaces with precise temperature and flow conditions are needed.

Our furnace concepts are designed for the requirements of packaging glass: stable melt guidance, homogeneous glass baths, flexible adaptation to different color and glass recipes, and high energy efficiency. This is how we create the basis for manufacturers to produce glass containers that run smoothly on the line – and impress the end customer with their quality, safety, and sustainability.

Art glass exists at the interface between technology and emotion. Whether it's mouth-blown unique pieces, color-intensive design series, structured architectural glass, or large-format art objects – what counts here is not just function, but above all, effect, the play of light, and tactile feel.

Color additives, inclusions, cased glass layers, or special surface finishes place special demands on melt control, viscosity, and temperature stability. At the same time, many manufactories and studios work with smaller batch sizes, changing recipes, and individual projects.

This diversity requires furnace systems that react flexibly and precisely: stable melting conditions for clear, homogeneous glasses as well as variable temperature profiles for special colors, structures, or experimental glass types.

Our glass furnaces support art glass manufacturers with customizable heating concepts, finely controllable temperature management, and furnace geometries that enable both continuous production and project-based melts. This creates the technical foundation on which designers, artists, and glass studios can freely implement their ideas – from small editions to architectural glass installations.