We know that glass is made from sand, soda, and limestone. But there are so many curiosities to explore in the glass development. The coloring making process of the bottles is one of them.
In this article, we will learn more about glass manufacturing. Let’s clarify how colors are added to the glass containers. Did you know, for example, that the color of the glass is obtained through the use of different inorganic oxides and salt?
There are many interesting facts to learn about the process of developing glass bottles. So, let’s check how glass bottles are colored to learn more about this amazing process.
Different colors of glass
Glass can have many different colors, although the most common colors to be used in liquid storage are flint, green, and amber.
The Stained Glass Express reproduces tips from the Glass Academy to explain which chemicals are involved in the process of obtaining each color of the glass. Let’s see:
| Iron oxide | Bluish-green. Often seen in beer bottles. Add chromium and it is the rich green of a wine bottle |
| Sulfur and carbon | Ambers. In borosilicate glass it makes blue and if calcium is added it is deep yellow. |
| Manganese | can remove the green tint in soda-lime glass. Add more and it is amethyst. |
| Manganese dioxide | also removed the green tint and with the process turns purple |
| Cobalt | blue glass |
| Cobalt oxide | blue-violet |
| Copper oxide | turquoise |
| Nickel | can be blue, violet or black. |
| Chromium | dark green or black |
| Chromium, oxide, arsenic | emerald green |
| Chromium | aventurine |
| Cadmium | deep yellow |
| Cadmium, selenium, Sulphur | bright red and orange |
| Titanium | yellowish-brown |
| Uranium | florescent yellow or green. |
| Selenium | red |
| Copper | dark red |
| Gold | cranberry or ruby |
| Gold chloride | red |
| Silver | orange-red to yellow |
| Tin oxide, antimony, arsenic | white |
| Sulfur | yellow-amber |
Owww! There are really many colors and substances involved in the glass coloring process. Next, we’ll talk about the most common colors, green glass, amber glass, and colorless.
Green glass
Green glass bottles are often used to store olive oil. But they can also store many other products, including spirits.
Do you already know Wild Glass? The shade of green that is obtained when using recycled glass is incredible. Check it out here!
The greenish color of the glass is usually obtained by adding chromium oxide to the formula of the glass bottle. Also, other substances can be added to the formula if the manufacturer wishes to obtain other shades of green and other effects.
Amber glass
Amber glass is commonly used in the beer, pharmacy, and essential oils industry. The amber-colored glass absorbs harmful UV radiation, protecting the content of light. Sulfur, iron, and carbon into the glass formula can be added to obtain the Amber core.
Hello-Bottle sells many options of Amber bottles, including versions made with recycled glass, whose design and the effect is incredible.
Colorless
For a long time, this tone was very difficult to obtain. The lighter the glass, the biggest used to be the effort required in the production process. With the innovative processes and new technologies, this process became easier and more accessible with time.
When we talk about colorless glass in this article, we are referring to flint glass and clear glass. The nomenclature “flint” glass is due to the formula created by the glassmaker George Ravenscroft in 1662. He added calcined flint (pure quartz rock) to his glass formula which made the production of clear glass easier to obtain.
Over time, several other techniques were invented, making the production of clear glass even more accessible. Today, the most popular process is the discolorization that is applied by adding pigments to the glass batch to offset the residual iron impurities until they became colorless and more transparent.
Curiosities about glass color functions
Did you know that glass bottles are colored not only for aesthetic reasons but also for the safety and protection of the content that is stored in them?
According to Packaging Blog, “beer bottles were green in color until the 1930s when it was discovered that brown bottles filtered out light prevented the beer from going bad”.
The following video explains a little more about how choosing the color of the bottle glass in which the product is bottled can influence the content, preventing unwanted chemical reactions in beer for example.
Looking for colored glass containers for your brand?
Hello-Bottle offers its customers high-quality glass containers with a premium design. Among the various options, you can find Flint, Extra-flint, Amber, and Green bottles. As we are a company concern with sustainable development and sustainability practices, we offer our customers access to different colors of bottles in versions developed in 100% post-consumption recycled glass. Contact us and request our product catalog to discover the universe of premium bottles available at Hello-Bottle.
