Image Credit: Mo-Sci Corporation
The glass annealing process relieves internal stresses, which could otherwise leave it vulnerable to fracturing or shattering in response to minor mechanical or thermal shock. This makes annealing a crucial step in the manufacture of robust, stable, and heat-resistant glass.
Why Anneal?
Physically speaking, glass is a rather unusual material. Most solid materials are significantly ‘ordered’ with their constituent molecules or atoms in a regular arrangement, repeating patterns called crystal lattices. But the molecules in glass follow a different set of rules: they are, by definition, disorderly.
In fact, the way solid glass molecules are arranged resembles that of a liquid, except that they are fixed in place and don’t move around. It is said that glass is an amorphous solid.
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By Madeleine Muzdakis on January 14, 2021
You probably know that there are three classically taught states of matter liquids, solids, and gases. However, the properties of certain materials defy simplistic categorization. For decades, scientists have sought to answer why glass lacks the crystalline molecular structure common to most solid materials. A recent paper published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has made an important discovery which helps to explain this special property. As it turns out, a newly defined state of matter known as
liquid glass is the key to understanding the structure of the commonplace solid-state material we all think we know well.