You may think that curved glass structures like balconies or furniture are easy to make because of their sleek and seemingly simple appearance, but they are actually very complex and complicated to create.
So how exactly is curved glass made?
Curved glass always begins as a regular, flat piece of glass. That flat glass is cut to size and cleaned using a UV lamp to check for dust and particles that may cause it to crack. A steel mold is also constructed based on the curvature measurements. To make sure the glass pane doesn’t stick to the steel mold during the heating process, a mixture of detergent, calcium carbonate and clay is painted onto the glass.
Once the steel mold is complete, it’s time to fire up the kiln! First, the steel mold is preheated for about an hour, as it takes longer to heat up than glass. After it is preheated, the steel mold is removed from the kiln and the glass is placed on top of it. The entire thing is then loaded back into the kiln and the temperature is raised to 700 degrees Celsius.
The magic number
Once the kiln reaches 700 degrees Celsius, the glass begins to soften and take the shape of the mold. Then the kiln is cooled down slowly to complete the curved glass. This is a tricky process, as too much variation in temperature in a short amount of time can cause the glass to bend unevenly.