Architectural glass percent of the world's flat glass is produced by the float glass process invented in the 1950s by Sir Alastair Pilkington of Pilkington Glass, in which molten glass is poured onto one end of a molten tin bath. The glass floats on the tin, and levels out as it spreads along the bath, giving a smooth face to both sides. The glass cools and slowly solidifies as it travels over the molten tin and leaves the tin bath in a continuous ribbon. The glass is then annealed by cooling in an oven called a lehr. The finished product has near-perfect
Glass-to-metal seal little lower than that of the soda-lime glass. Classically high lead containing glasses are used, but it is also possible to substitute these by multi-component glasses e.g. based on the system ---------. Glass-to-metal seal Glass-to-metal seals are a very important element of the construction of vacuum tubes, electric discharge tubes, incandescent light bulbs, glass encapsulated semiconductor diodes, reed switches, pressure tight glass windows in metal cases, and metal or ceramic packages of electronic components. Properly done, such a seal is hermetic (vacuum tight, good electrical insulation, special optical properties e.g. UV lamps). To achieve such a seal, two properties must