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 to the glass which is inside of the bore of a strong metal part with higher coefficient of thermal expansion. Compression seals can withstand extremely high pressures and physical stress such as mechanical and thermal shock. Because glass is extremely strong in compression, compression seals can withstand very high pressures. Silver chloride, which melts at 457 C bonds to glass, metals and other materials and has been used for vacuum seals. Even if it can be a convenient way to seal metal into glass it will not be a true glass to metal seal but rather a combination of a