Glass As Strong As Steel

Corning Museum of Glass

Before getting to the news, I just wanted to recommend the Corning Museum of Glass to anyone who hasn't been there. If you're in the finger lakes region of NY ever, it's worth half a day. Pretty amazing place filled with Art and Science and the town is pretty cool too.

The Glass is Half Full?

Seems like every few months some new type of glass comes out that is tougher than previously discovered glasses. Scientists in Japan are keeping the evolution of glass going with their latest find, glass that is 50% alumina and hard as steel. See the article below:

Scientists develop 'unbreakable' glass almost as tough as steel

Japanese researchers have developed a new type of glass almost as hard as steel, a breakthrough that could lead to the development of substantially tougher windows and tableware."We will establish a way to mass-produce the new material shortly," said Atsunobu Masuno, an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo's Institute of Industrial Science. "We are looking to commercialize the technique within five years."

Oxide glass mainly consists of silicon dioxide, with its strength boosted by mixing in alumina, an oxide of aluminum. But it had been difficult for scientists to form glass containing a large amount of alumina because the oxide causes crystallization when the glass comes into contact with its container.The scientists bypassed this problem by using a containerless processing technique.

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