Anatomy of cast glass: The effect of casting parameters on the meso-level structure and macro-level structural performance of cast glass components

Cast glass has great application potential in the architectural realm, yet, despite its possibilities and attractiveness, designers, engineers and developers are, from an early design stage, hesitant to employ it; the limited available and craft-based manufacturing facilities, the questionable quality of the product, the missing engineering data...

RE-FACADE GLASS PANELS: made by Construction & Demolition Recycled Glass

Although glass is a known material for centuries, extensive usage and today’s technology –with modern construction methods– made glass one of the most valuable materials of the present and future. Witnessing an immense progression and a broad innovative boost in the construction field, creating the perfect link between indoor and outdoor...

Glass up-casting: a review on the current challenges in glass recycling and a novel approach for recycling “as-is” glass waste into volumetric glass components

This paper presents the casting of volumetric glass components from glass waste as an alternative glass-recycling approach. The approach is characterized by its flexibility to accommodate a variety of compositions and ability to yield volumetric (solid or thick-walled) glass products that can tolerate higher contamination rates without a...

The Application of Waste Float Glass, Recycled in Structural Beams made with the Glass Casting Method

It is not obvious to talk about glass recycling when we realize that a mature recycling procedure for glass bottles is already working well. However, apart from glass bottles, unfortunately, that a large amount of glass will disappear into landfills. This large quantity of unrecycled glass indicates that there is a large potential in upgrading...

The applicability evaluation of recycled-glass beam made of waste float glass

Aiming at maximizing the recyclability of glass and integrating the sustainability with glass structural application, the concept of recycled glass beam has been proposed at the beginning of this project. Based on the investigation of existing glass manufacturing and recycling industry, the resource material has been targeting at float glass...

The effect of manufacturing flaws in the meso-structure of cast glass on the structural performance

The success of projects such as the Crystal Houses façade in Amsterdam has triggered an increasing interest from architects, engineers and glass producers in the development and application of structural cast glass components. This interest raises, simultaneously, the needs for a controlled manufacturing process, a system for quality control and...

Structural cast glass components manufactured from waste glass: Diverting everyday discarded glass from the landfill to the building industry

Although in theory glass can be endlessly re-melted without loss in quality, in practice only a small percentage gets recycled, mainly by the packaging industry. Most of the discarded glass fails to pass the high quality standards of the prevailing glass industry – due to coatings, adhesives, other contaminants or incompatibility of the recipe –...

Cast Glass Components out of Recycled Glass: Potential and Limitations of Upgrading Waste to Load-bearing Structures

Although in theory glass can be endlessly remelted without loss in quality, in practice only a small percentage gets recycled, mainly by the packaging industry. Most of the discarded glass fails to pass the high quality standards of the prevailing glass industry -due to coatings, adhesives, other contaminants or incompatibility of the recipe-...