Fritted Glass, What is fritted glass, Why use fritted glass
Fritted glass speaks to what is fritted glass and why use fritted glass.
It is glass that producers are equipped to imprint the surface of glass with silk screened patterns of ceramic based paints.
The paints consist primarily of pigmented glass particles called frit. After the frit has been printed on the glass, the glass is dried and then fired in a tempering furnace, transforming the frit inro a hard, permanent ceramic coating.
Many colours are possible in both translucent and opaque finishes. Typical patterns for fritted or silkscreen glass are various dot and stripe motifs, but custom designed patterns and even text are easily reproduced. This glass is often used to control the penetration of solar light and heat into a space.
Wikipedia
Frit is a ceramic composition that has been fused in a special fusing oven, quenched to form a glass, and granulated. Frits form an important part of the batches used in compounding enamels and ceramic glazes; the purpose of this pre-fusion is to render any soluble and/or toxic components insoluble by causing them to combine with silica and other added oxides.
However not all glass that is fused, and quenched in water is frit, as this method of cooling down very hot glass is widely used in glass manufacture.
The origin of the word "frit" dates back to 1662 according to the OED as "a calcinated mixture of sand and fluxes ready to be melted in a crucible to make glass". Nowadays this is more commonly called "glass batch", the unheated raw materials.
In antiquity, frit could be crushed to make pigments or shaped to create objects. It may also have served as an intermediate material in the manufacture of raw glass. The definition of frit tends to be variable and has proved a thorny issue for scholars. In recent centuries, frits have taken on a number of roles, such as biomaterials and additives to microwave dielectric ceramics. Frit in the form of alumino-silicate can be used in glaze free continuous casting refractories.
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