ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Glass production

Glass production is the process of making glass products, like bottles, glasses, and mirrors. It starts with raw materials like sand, soda ash, and limestone being mixed together in a big oven called a furnace. This furnace gets super hot, like really, really hot. It can be as hot as 1,500 degrees Celsius!

When the ingredients melt together, they form a liquid called glass. But this glass is not finished yet because it is still too hot and needs to be cooled down slowly. The glass makers use special tools to take the molten glass out of the furnace and then let it cool in a special area called a kiln.

The glass can now be molded into the shape that the makers want. They use different machines and tools to shape the glass, like blowing air into a tube to make it expand into a bubble or pouring the glass into a mold to make it take on a specific shape.

Once the glass is molded into its final shape, it is heated up again to make sure it is strong enough to use. This process is called annealing. After the glass has been annealed, it’s ready to be packed and sent out to stores or factories to be used in different products.

So, in summary, glass production is the process of melting ingredients like sand and soda ash together in a super-hot furnace, cooling the liquid down, shaping it into its final form, annealing it to make sure it is strong enough to use, and then sending it out to be used in different products.