Types of glass

Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline) solid made from sand that displays a glass transition near its melting point which is around 1,700°C (3,090°F). This means that material transforms from a hard and brittle state into a molten state, or vice versa depending on whether the glass transition temperature is the melting or solidifying point. An amorphous solid has some of the crystalline order of a solid and some of the random molecular structure of a liquid.

Silicate glass is the most common form, which consists mainly of silica or silicon dioxide, SiO2. Impurities or additional elements and compounds added to the silicate change the colour and other properties of the glass.

Glass is a very commonly used material because, whilst still molten, it can be manipulated into forms suitable for a very wide range of different uses, from packaging and household objects to car windscreens, windows, and so on.

For more information see: Glass.

Types of glass include:

• Annealed glass.
• Broad glass.
• Cast plate.
• Cristallo.
• Crown glass.
• Curved glass.
• Cylinder glass.
• Decorative glass.
• Dichroic glass.
• Drawn flat sheet.
• Drawn glass.
• Environmental protective glazing.
• Façon de Venise.
• Flint glass.
• Float glass.
• Forest glass.
• Fully tempered glass.
• Heat soaked tempered glass.
• Heat strengthened glass.
• HLLA glass.
• Horticultural glass.
• Kiln-distorted glass.
• Kiln-formed glass.
• Laminated glass.
• Lead glass.
• Leaded glass.
• Low-emissivity glass.
• Mixed-alkali glass.
• Obsidian.
• Patent plate glass.
• Plate glass.
• Potash glass.
• Prismatic glass.
• Self-cleaning glass.
• Soda-lime glass.
• Stained glass.
• Structural membranes.
• Vitrolite.
• Wired glass.
• Glass block flooring.
• Glass block wall.
• Glass blowing.
• Glass fibre.
• Patent glazing.
• The history of glass in the UK and Ireland.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• Domestic windows.
• Fenestration.
• Glass.
• Glazing.
• Types of window.
• Window.