Credit: Photo: Neptun Lab/University of Freiburg
Glass is ubiquitous, from high-tech products in the fields of optics, telecommunications, chemistry and medicine to everyday objects such as bottles and windows. However, shaping glass is mainly based on processes such as melting, grinding or etching. These processes are decades old, technologically demanding, energy-intensive and severely limited in terms of the shapes that can be realized. For the first time, a team led by Prof. Dr. Bastian E. Rapp from the Laboratory of Process Technology at the Department of Microsystems Engineering at the University of Freiburg, in collaboration with the Freiburg-based start-up Glassomer, has developed a process that makes it possible to form glass easily, quickly and in almost any shape using injection molding. The researchers presented their results in the journal