Innovations

  ←Back
June 19, 2018


Make CVD Part of your Future



Glass manufacturers began to use CVD for online coatings in the 1960’s. Pilkington was the first to develop a marketable product, Reflectafloat. Over the lifetime of the product, it was made in both the tin bath and the lehr. Reflectafloat is a reflective product that doesn’t have Low-E properties; it is still used in developing glass markets. Pilkington licensed the Reflectafloat technology to some of their float bath licensees but never made it widely available.


Stewart Engineers was founded and committed to developing CVD so independent glass manufacturers could have access to the technology. With a concerted effort from the entire engineering staff, Stewart Engineers commissioned its first CVD system in 2005. Pilkington and AGC continued development of new CVD coatings, and then in 2006, Pilkington was acquired by Nippon Sheet Glass (later known as NSG). Stewart Engineers, NSG, and AGC all continued with CVD development in the 2000’s with Stewart having the most significant gains by percentage and the others by scale.


Stewart Engineers continues to develop cutting edge technology and offers a comparable product to that offered by NSG and AGC in every category. Stewart Engineers is developing a breakthrough in CVD, and we expect to launch it within 18 months. About half of the ten largest float glass manufacturers use CVD. The reason is clear; it is profitable. Since Stewart Engineers has made CVD available to independent float glass producers, it makes sense for the independent float glass producers to embrace CVD technology which has been profitable for half a century.

Our latest innovations

July 27, 2018

Feasibility Studies


Stewart Engineers can help you quantify risks and ensure financial feasibility before investing in glass manufacturing. Investing in float glass is challenging for new entrants. How can y... Read More→

July 27, 2018

Glass Manufacturing


Stewart Engineers builds high-quality float glass manufacturing facilities around the world. We use our considerable experience in fl... Read More→

June 19, 2018

Make CVD Part of your Future


Glass manufacturers began to use CVD for online coatings in the 1960’s. Pilkington was the first to develop a marketable product, Reflectafloat. Over the lifetime of the product, i... Read More→

May 07, 2018

History of Glass


How to turn Sand into Glass The raw material from which glass is made is silica, the most abundant of all the earth's minerals. Milky white in color, it is found in many forms of rock, including granite. And as... Read More→

May 07, 2018

Float Glass Cutting and Packing


The final online manufacturing process for float glass is the Cutting and Packing line. The cutting and packing conveyor is immediately downstream of the annealing lehr. It is comprised of special roller sections that... Read More→

May 07, 2018

Float Glass Annealing Lehr


What is a lehr? A glass annealing lehr oven- often just referred to as a 'lehr', is a long, temperature controlled, kiln. Lehrs are typically 6m wide and... Read More→

May 07, 2018

Glass Forming


Forming Technology Flat glass is manufactured using one of three processes: the sheet process, the plate process, or the float process. The float glass process has, almost entirely, replaced the sheet glass and... Read More→

May 07, 2018

Glass Materials and Batching


Glass contains three major categories of constituents - formers, fluxes, and network modifiers. Silicon dioxide (SiO2), or sand, is used as the former and basic constituent with soda ash (Na2CO3) as the flux. Lime (Ca... Read More→

May 07, 2018

Glass Melting Process


Melting The typical melting furnace is a Six Port Cross Fired Regenerative furnace with a capacity of 500 tons per day. Cross fired regenerative furnaces have been built for very small and very large melting ar... Read More→

April 10, 2018

Glass Coating Technology Comparison


A variety of techniques are available to deposit thin films onto flat glass. The most widely used of these for producing high-quality functional coatings can be subdivided into two classes: Physical Vapor Deposition (... Read More→