Design Consideration For Glass Working Product Design

Glass products are commercially manufactured in an almost unlimited variety of shapes. Many are produced in very large quantities, such as light bulbs, beverage bottles, and window glass. Others, such as giant telescope lenses, are made individually.

Glassworking Product Design Consideration :

Glass possesses special properties that make it desirable in certain applications. The following design recommendations are:

Glass is transparent and has certain optical properties that are unusual if not unique among engineering materials. For applications requiring transparency, light transmittance, magnification, and similar optical properties, glass is likely to be the material of choice. Certain polymers are transparent and may be competitive, depending on design requirements.
Glass is several times stronger in compression than in tension; components should be designed so that they are subjected to compressive stresses, not tensile stresses.
Ceramics, including glass, are brittle. Glass parts should not be used in applications that involve impact loading or high stresses, which might cause fracture.
Certain glass compositions have very low thermal expansion coefficients and are therefore tolerant of thermal shock. These glasses can be selected for applications in which this characteristic is important.
Outside edges and corners on glass parts should have large radii or chamfers likewise, inside corners should have large radii. Both outside and inside corners are potential points of stress concentration.
Unlike parts made of traditional and new ceramics, threads may be included in the design of glass parts; they are technically feasible with the press-and-blow shaping processes. However, the threads should be coarse.