Glass Supply

Diamond Coatings can now offer full glass supply, with or without our range of coatings applied. The materials can be supplied cut to size and edge finished as required. The use of Water jet cutting facilities CNC improves our flexibility to supply a variety of shapes, which may not be possible with conventional cutting techniques. There is also a wide range of anti glare finishes available.

 

Our range of substrates includes the following:

• Soda Lime Including toughened options
• Borosilicate
• Fused Silica
• BK7

Soda Lime: -

Soda-lime glass is the type of glass, which is most widely used; its inexpensive processing costs make it the cheapest option. Soda-lime glass is formed by drawing the glass over molten tin baths. The air side (facing up) is typically flatter and smoother than the tin side. Diamond can supply Soda Lime glass either standard, thermally or chemically toughened and can be cut to a variety of sizes.

Borosilicate: -

Borosilicate glass is a low soda glass consisting primarily of the following, 70% silica, 10% boric oxide, 8% sodium oxide, 8% potassium oxide and 1% calcium oxide.

Although somewhat more difficult to make than traditional glass it is economical to produce because of its superior durability. Chemical & heat resistance properties are of excellent use in chemical laboratory, military uses and a variety of others. Borosilicate glass has a very low thermal expansion coefficient making it a popular material for flat TFT screens and other critical display equipment.

Optically, borosilicate glasses are crown glasses with low dispersion and relatively low refractive indices (1.51 - 1.54 across the visible range).

Fused Silica: -

Fused Quartz & fused silica are types of glass containing primarily silica in amorphous (non-crystalline) form. They are manufactured using several different processes. Fused Quartz is made by melting high purity naturally occurring quartz crystal at around 2000ºC using either an electrically heated furnace (electrically fused) or a gas/oxygen fuelled furnace (flame used).

Fused quartz is normally transparent. Fused Silica is produced using high purity silica sand as the feedstock, and is normally melted using an electric furnace, resulting in a material that is translucent or opaque, Fused Silica is often referred to as a higher standard fused Quartz. Both Fused Silica & Fused Quartz can be supplied in a variety of sizes and thickness; this material can also be supplied polished.

BK7: -

BK7 Glass is widely used in high transmission required displays; the standard optical performance of uncoated BK7 is on average 93%.

AR coatings can improve this transmission. BK7 is not a cheap material and is manufactured in block form and then cut to the desired thickness. The face of the two sides is then polished to the required dimensions.

 

The above materials can be supplied cut to size and edge finished as required. The use of Water jet cutting facilities improves our flexibility to supply a variety of shapes, which may not be possible with conventional cutting techniques. There are also a wide range of anti glare finishes available.