A glass bottle is a bottle created from glass. Glass bottles can vary in size considerably, but are most commonly found in sizes ranging between about 10ml and 5 litres.
The history of glass can be traced back to at least 12,000 BC where glass coated objects have been found.[1]
Millions of glass bottles are created worldwide every day. In the US, there is an average of at least two bottle-making factories in each county. It is a highly mechanized process, and the bottles in use now are no longer hand blown as they were in the past.
A glass bottle is 100% recyclable with many new bottles containing glass which was created over 20 years ago. Less energy is used in recycling a glass bottle than creating the glass from raw materials, helping the environment.[2]
When glass bottles of liquid are dropped or subjected to shock, the water hammer effect may cause hydrodynamic glass breakage.[3][4]
Glass bottles manufacturing takes place over several stages. To briefly outline the processes from beginning to end: raw material, melting, forming, annealing, physical inspection, machine & laser inspection, physical inspection (second time), quality control, and finally packing.[5]
To strengthen glass bottles, the process of lamination is sometimes done. Laminated safety glass is made by combining a layer of plastic over glass. When a non-laminated bottle is dropped, the glass breaks sending pieces of glass everywhere. When a laminated bottle is dropped, the glass still breaks, though the outer layer of plastic contains the broken pieces of glass.[1]
Once formation is complete, some bottles may suffer from stress as a result of unequal cooling rates. An annealing oven can be used to reheat and cool glass containers to rectify stress and make the bottle stronger. [6]
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