Glass from sand to skyscraper

1. Glass from sand to skyscraper Best Buy Headquarters in Provo, Utah

2. How glass is made • Most glass is comprised of silica that comes from fine white sand or pulverized sandstone and a small amount of alkali like soda (sodium bicarbonate) or potash or recycled glass to lower its melting point, lime is added to stabilize and strengthen it and also to make it water resistant. It is then heated to 2500 degrees for up to 24 hours then cooled several hundred degrees to work with.

3. How liquid glass becomes sheets of glass • Sheets of glass or Float glass is manufactured in a unique way because the molten glass is formed by floating it on a bed of molten tin kept at high temperature. The glass spreads out and flattens, and is then drawn out into a continuous glass ribbon. The surface of the glass winds up being extremely smooth, with a brilliant finish like sheet glass, plus the optical quality of plate glass.

4. How sheets of glass become an insulated unit at viracon • The First Step • Cutting • In the cutting department they have a large table they roll the glass onto then they use a large glass cutting tool machine to score the glass then they snap it in two this we will see done in the video. Once cut to the right size it goes to either the silk screen department then to tempering or straight to the tempering line.

5. The second step • Tempering • Once in the tempering department it is loaded into the oven and heated to approximately 1,150° F. Once at this temperature, it is then rapidly cooled, or quenched, by air blown onto both sides of the glass surfaces simultaneously. This cooling process creates a state of high compression at the glass surfaces while the central core of the glass is in a compensating tension. The only physical characteristics of the glass that change are the improved strength and resistance to thermal stress and shock.

6. The third step • Coatings • In the coatings department the glass is loaded on a conveyor belt and has either a solar reflective coating put on it or a low-e coating. These coatings reduce inside glare and heat transfer. At Viracon they have over 350 combinations of color, tint, silk screen, solar reflective and low-e coatings. After coatings the glass goes to staging where it can then go to the laminating or the insulating department.

7. The forth step • This step is either laminating or insulating. If it is the laminating department they will be taking two sheets of glass and joining them together with a strong layer of vinyl, by running them through an oven and then an autoclave. These are sometimes shipped straight to a job site or another company or the are joined with another piece of glass to make an insulated unit in the insulting department.

8. The last step before shipping • The Insulating Department • Here we join two units of glass together using a metal air spacer made of either aluminum or stainless steel, they come in plain silver color or black. The air spacers are filled with desiccant to absorb any moisture between the panes and are joined to the glass with butyl. The unit is then sent down the line to have silicone fill the remaining space. And then it is off to a box and the shipping department.

9. The last thing Viracon does • Once the finished unit is in the box it goes to the packing department then they close up the box and send it to the shipping department. The shipping department then loads into a truck to go to the construction sight, where turn it into a skyscraper.

10. Viracon video

11. Some completed skyscrapers Oklahoma City Federal Building Utah Valley Convention Center

12. Thank you for you time • Question and Answer Time