How are GIANT glass blanks made?

[silvergrahm]

Hello,

First post. Glad to be here. I'm wondering if anyone knows how mega sized scientific glass blanks (round bottom, bell jar, etc) are made... I'm talking 70L +. Do they roll sheet glass? Start with ultra thick super wide extruded glass tubing and blow it somehow?

And what is the largest single piece vessel you've ever seen? 200 liters? Bigger even? There must be a practical or even physical limit on how large a vessel can become...

Thanks!

[Slow]

Start with ultra thick super wide extruded glass tubing and blow it somehow?

Replace "somehow" with "on a lathe" and you're on the right track.


This wine bottle is pretty big... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL1uXgznT64)

[Greymatter Glass]

Slow isn't slow today, beat me to the video I was gonna post.

I have a 250x9x1500 tube at my shop you could make into a 75L graduated cylinder just by closing one end...

edit: That's the one that they made out of boro at the gathering port on the main batch tank at Kavalier right?

[T-Rex]

DAMN that is one big ass bottle. I nearly lost it when I saw them encalmo-ing those gigantic pieces. So sweet.

I could crawl through the bore of that lathe no problem.

[glassmax]

Nice thread,

Here some records:

largest glass wine bottle,
480 liters,630 kg, 2,4 meters tall

48226

largest beer glass,blown and hand made in the bavarian forest
65 liters, 1,07m tall
So you can tell your wife,you,d only drink one glass last night...

48224

largest optical lens ever,cast by "Schott Glass"
3,5 meters wide,took months to cool down controlled

48225

largest christmas ball I,ve blown at the torch was some 10 inch,
sorry,no pic,already broken!

Greez,Axel

[BORO]

how can that bottle be the biggest at 480 L when the video shows a 570 L bottle?

[Greymatter Glass]

old information probably?

[Greymatter Glass]

Also, the largest lens ever made that I know of is the 8.4m Subaru primary on Mauna Kea (it ran me off the road going up the mountain when I was 18)

I guess "optical" lens would imply a refractive rather than reflective lens? Either way...

[colonel4bin]

The simax representative told me that they blow the larger flasks hot shop style by getting a gather and blowing into a mold. Must be pretty cool to see done and super hot, I wouldn't want that job.