Glass Splashbacks for the modern kitchen

One of the most popular bespoke products in glass at the moment would have to be kitchen Glass Splashbacks.

These are made by cutting up a stock sheet of glass into oversized parts which will later become splashbacks.

These are then machined on all edges to provide a smooth, safe and attractive edge. This also helps to increase the chances of the panel surviving the Tempering Process.

Once the glass has had all of its machining performed, such as socket cutouts and wall unit notches, the panels are then toughened in a tempering furnace. This will provide the glass with heat resistance of around 500 degrees, more than enough for use in the kitchen environment.

Then the glass is spray painted on the back side and installed into a kitchen using mirror adhesive.

For more information please see Glass Splashbacks at Glasstops or Glass Splashbacks London

Photos of Glass being CNC machined

This is our Intermac Master 35 setup with Custom suction cups from Blick Industries

Ive also uploaded a short video of this machining working to Youtube, please find the link below

Glass Processing at Glasstops UK

Please note that all video and Photos used here belong to Glasstops UK - Manufacturers / Processors and cannot be used without permission.

Machining Bespoke Glass Parts

As with all machining, there are limitations as to what can be produced, sometimes this is down to tool dimensions, material strength etc. When machining glass using a CNC the biggest limitation is usually the Vacuum Suction Cups.
These determine exactly what can be held on the machining bed by their varying size. Unfortunately as you begin to use the smaller standard size cups (90mm Diameter and 60mm Diameter), machining small pieces where only 1 or 2 of these cups can be positioned underneath the likely hood of producing an accurate high quality piece becomes unlikely.

One solution to this problem, if you are lucky enough to be producing a large volume of these pieces, would be to use custom suction cups tailored to the shape of the part you are producing.

This was a place i have found myself recently in, so i decided to get in touch with Blick Industries in America with the dimensions of what i was producing and the amount i wanted to locate on the machine at one time.

They then quoted and sent me their designs so i proceeded with the order.

Since receiving the suction cups, they had paid for themselves within their first week as now our company is the only company able to produce a part for our best customer, of which they take quantities of over 1000 a month.

for photos of the bed with the custom suction cups see the first banner image on the processing page on the following site,

Glass Processing

to find out more about Blick and their products please visit

Blick Industries

Glass Edge Profiles

In a previous post i touched on different edges available through glass processing using modern machinery.

Here i will go into a little further detail of the common profiles used.

Flat and Arriss

This is the most commonly used edge profile for processed glass. This edge can be produced using a Straight Line Edger or a CNC work-center.

Beveling

This Type of edge is commonly found on Mirrors or Door panes. It is available in any width typically up to 50mm wide. This edge can be produced using a Straight Line Beveller or a 5-Axis CNC Work Center

Pencil Edge / Bull Nose / Triple Pencil Edge, Etc

There are many other profiles available on glass but are rarely used. These profiles originate from the Stone industry and aren't used mainly because they do not provide the same reflective quality as the Beveled Edge or Flat and Arriss.

Brilliant Cutting Glass

Brilliant Cuts in glass are grooves worked into the surface of the glass (typically for Windows or Mirrors) to add a unique touch of decoration.

This can be done by hand or using CNC machines with atleast 4 Axis and a tool aggregate.

Here i will cover the CNC method as this is the only method i have used.

Designs are drawn up using CAD software to produce a perfect draft of the finished design. Quite often these designs are made in a format known as DXF or DWG.

If you are unfamiliar with CAD Software and would like to know a little more please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-aided_design

Once the CAD is complete, CAM software is used to generate machine code to follow the geometries specified in the CAD drawing. Many CNC software suites combine CAD and CAM into a single program. The program we use is ICam which is made by Intermac and provided with all of their current machines.

The machine then uses a Diamond Disc to grind the grooves into the surface of the glass. This produces a frosted finish.

If a polished finish is required, a second Disc which is made of a Clay then works the same path to bring the groove to a clear finish.

If you would like to see this process, i have added a link to a video i made of our machine producing a brilliant cut on a mirror.

Youtube Video link below

Brilliant Cutting a Mirror

Example of brilliant cut glass used in a window.

For more pictures of Brilliant Cut Glass and Mirrors using CNC Processing

Glass Edge Polishing and Finishing

There are many ways of finishing a glass edge. For example window manufacturers simply sand the sharpness in a technique called "Arrissing". The purpose of this is to make the glass safer to handle and also improve its chances of making it through a tempering process called Toughening.
This does not produce a good looking finish edge, but is suitable because the edge cannot be seen once installed.

However glass used for items such as mirrors, table tops, worktops, balustrades and kitchen splashbacks for example require a smooth machine polished edge as very often these edges are visible after installation.

This edge is achieved by cutting the glass Oversize in relation to its finished dimensions. The amount of extra glass left on is determined by the edge type required.

For example for a polished edge produced by a Straight Line Edger, usually only 1mm or 2mm is added to each edge (giving a total "Cut Size"). This extra glass is ground away using a sequence of varying grades of diamond impregnated wheels and polishing wheels.
This produces an excellent bright finish but does leave sharp square corners.

If the glass is being used in a application where the corner would be exposed, the polishing would be processed on a CNC machine, which is able to produce radius or chamfered corners.
This process is slower than using a Straight Line Edger.

For more information on Straight Line edgers and CNC polishing of glass please see the Glasstops Processing page for further information and images.

Glass Processing

Glass Cutting

Cutting glass is done by scoring the surface of glass and then opening (splitting the glass along the score line) by using a wheel suitable for that glass thickness and type of cut.

The wheel in the above photo is used in an automatic cnc cutting table, but hand cutters are also available.

We use an Intermac 37CT cutting table in the Glasstops Factory as seen in the image below.

For a good cut, the glass must be clear of any dirt and plenty of cutting fluid / oil must be applied before or during the cut is made.

Many cutting tables can now produce linear or open shaped cuts.

An open shape cut is a score line that is put into the glass with enough pressure to open the cut on its own. This makes shape cutting alot easier and only then requires the excess of the glass to be broken away.

Introduction

I have started this blog to allow me to easily share photos and videos of glass being processed to manufacture items for all kinds of different uses.

Modern glass processing is achieved using CNC technology, which can perform a variety of different types of machining such as

• Drilling
• Straight and Shaped Polishing / Edging - Internal and External
• Milling and Cutouts (Sockets, Notches, Sinks, etc)
• Brilliant Cutting
• Shaped Bevelling
• Engraving
• Laser Scanning of Templates for Glass Replication

 at the Glasstops factory we have 2 CNC work centers , an Intermac Master 43c (4-Axis) and an Intermac Master 35 (5-Axis).

Thanks to these versatile machines all of the above can be achieved with just one machine.

For more information on these machines and other machines we use checkout the following links:

Glass Manufacturing
Intermac CNC Work-centers