Cutting soda-lime silicate glass

Glass cutting is the initial stage in flat glass processing. It is an important phase in the glass transformation process.

The quality required in the construction and automotive industries implies precise, clean cutting. This is often the case before edge grinding, which requires exemplary cutting quality: poor quality cutting leads to loss of productivity and a higher scrap rate.

Market trends have influenced cutting technology:

• straight and shaped cutting tables (x, y, z) ;

• tables with trimming for low-emissivity lenses ;

• laminated glass cutting tables.

Today, machine depreciation is considered to be lower than labor costs, whereas until very recently, the opposite was true.

This article complements the document "Cutting flat glass" [BM 7 428] , published by O. Gaume in 2004, which develops the theoretical aspect of the wheel cutting technique; the present document is oriented towards the practical procedures required to obtain optimum cutting quality. The application of this cutting technique is reserved exclusively for standard soda-lime silicate glass used in the construction and automotive industries.

To get a better grasp of this type of cutting, we first need to recall the phenomenon of glass annealing and the resulting thermal constraints.

Systematic analysis of the main parameters has been resumed in order to gain a better understanding of the various settings that are essential for good wheel cutting.

An exhaustive list of cutting defects and protection techniques completes the analysis.

It's worth explaining the different cutting methods depending on the nature of the glass (monolithic, double-laminated, wired glass).

Finally, a description of modern cutting tools and their performance completes the dossier. These tools are used for both straight and shaped cutting.