Glasses are used in the construction, plastics and textile industries. By applying a voltage, glasses can be tinted, for example (intelligent glass).
The main component of most glasses is silicon dioxide. But plastics can also be a starting material for acrylic glass. Artificial glasses are produced by melting raw materials in different melting aggregates, as well as by the sol-gel process. Inorganic non-metallic glasses are divided into non-oxide and oxide glasses.
The oxidic glasses include the silicate glasses, which in turn are categorised as aluminosilicate, lead silicate, borosilicate, alkali silicate and alkali borate glasses. Glasses are used in the construction, plastics and textile industries, among others. Production consists of the processes batch, melting, shaping, cooling and surface finishing, as well as quality control, glass colouring and decolourisation. Collected and sorted glass is then added back to the melting process after further steps.