Our first stop on Day 2 of our Summer experience was at the The Paul Wissmach Glass Company is located in Paden City, WV.
Wissmach specializes in sheet glass. The assembly line process is used to produce 700 sq ft of glass an hour.
We got to see a new ladle used to get the molten glass out. This one was on wheels!
Then the glass along with a color batch is poured onto a station where a worker kneads the material together and evens it out almost like taffy.
The glass is then rolled through a roller system that thins, presses and creates the type of sheet glass desired. (Some have imprinted designs or patterns)
These are the rollers up close!
As it rolls through the rolling system it then immediately begins to cool.
The glass is then pushed into the cooling oven.
Other parts of the Factory
Different designed rollers.
Each batch for the different colored sheet glass is created ahead of time in the bins pictured below. The sand is shipped in from the Greenbrier Valley in southern WV, the soda ash is shipped in from the western part of the United States and the color chemical is added .
This is the mixing station for all of the raw materials. The cart is wheeled underneath.
The sheet glass below is used in churches, windows, buildings and displays all around the world.
A shipping container for the glass.
Why do you think I included this picture?
These shipping containers are packed and ready to go to places like Germany, Australia and Russia!
How do you think they transport glass overseas?
My reflection: WOW. I met a man named Vic who has worked for Paul Wissmach for 36 years. I'm so impressed that he can travel the world and view glass that he made here in WV. His passion and talent were something that travel with each beautiful piece of glass wherever it goes!
The other big impression of this experience was how fluid the assembly line worked. The cooperation and teamwork is something that is essential for production. I can really relate that to how I'd like to see our class work!
A very complete post on a full day. Your students can certainly use this as a reference.
ReplyDeleteExcellent pictorials that follow the glass from beginning to a finished and shipped stained glass pane.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a good comparison to blowing a vase or just glass blowing in genral. A good observation lesson for students learning basic science skills . . . one in which a lot of 7th graders lack... observation!
ReplyDelete