Soda-lime glass
Soda-lime glass, also called
soda-lime-silica glass, is the most prevalent type of glass, used for windowpanes, and glass containers for beverages, food, and some commodity items. Glass bakeware is often made of tempered soda-lime glass. Soda-lime glass is relatively inexpensive, chemically stable, reasonably hard, and extremely workable. Because it is capable of being re-softened and re-melted numerous times, it is ideal for recycling. Soda-lime glass is prepared by melting the raw materials, such as sodium carbonate, lime, dolomite, silicon dioxide, aluminium oxide, and small quantities of fining agents in a glass furnace at temperatures locally up to 1675 °C. The temperature is only limited by the quality of the furnace superstructure material and by the glass composition. Relatively inexpensive minerals such as trona, sand, and feldspar are usually used instead of pure chemicals. Green and brown bottles are obtained from raw materials containing iron oxide. The mix of raw materials is termed
batch. Soda-lime glass is divided technically into glass used for windows, called
flat glass, and glass for containers, called
container glass.