Everyone has been there. You look out the window and think about how the glass was made. Glass is everywhere around us, from the windows and computer screens to bottles and jars.

But how is it made? And how can it change the world? Keep reading to find out what flat glass is and one of the biggest new innovations in the industry.

What Is Flat Glass?

Flat glass, sometimes called plate glass, is a type of glass that is flat and good for use in things like windows and TV screens. It is different from types of glass that need to curved such as in bottles and jars.

Almost all flat glass is made in a process called floating, but there are other ways of making flat glass. The result is float glass. Glass is made of silica, or silicon dioxide, which is also the main component of sand and silicon computer chips.

Rapidly cooling these silicate compounds when they are in their molten form produces glass. Float glass is made by floating the molten silicates on top of a layer of molten metal. The result is a very uniform and very flat piece of glass.

Modern glass production requires integrated software to control not only the glass making process but also the inventory and work order data. For more information, check out BidClips.

A New Innovation

One of the newest innovations in the flat glass industry is solar glass. This glass works like a solar panel to harvest energy from sunlight. Unlike solar panels, however, the glass remains transparent, so it can be used in place of any other glass.

This seems like a contradiction, right? How can light make electricity if it is passing right through the glass? The trick is to use a part of the light spectrum that isn’t visible to us.

Solar glass uses quantum dots to make this work. Quantum dots are able to absorb light at a very precise frequency and emit it at another frequency. These can absorb light in the infrared and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum.

This allows the visible light from the sun to pass through the glass uninterrupted. The quantum dots then emit the light at a different frequency and transfer it to photovoltaic cells at the edge of the glass.

These cells can then convert the light to electricity to power our homes and businesses. This technology could revolutionize the way we generate electricity and help us to switch to more renewable sources of energy.

Next Steps

Now that you know what flat glass is and one of the newest innovations in the glass industry, feel free to do some more research and decide what type of glass you need for your project.

If you enjoyed this article, please comment or share and check out some of our other articles from apps and business to lifestyle and tech!