Glass & Ceramic

Testing and Quality

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Standard test:

I. Glass

• Bending Test • Fracture Test • Thermal Shock

I. Ceramic

• Flexure Tests • Impact Test • Thermal Shock

Bending Test (ASTM C158):
Test Method Procedure:
1. Refer to the standard for the proper way to cut, size, count and
prepare the specimen.

2. Position the specimen in the bend fixture.

3. Apply load to the specimen, as specified for annealed glass and

pre-stressed glass, at a constant rate until the specimen breaks.

4. Follow the directions to identify where the point of failure

occurred.

5. Constantly apply the load at the specified speed until the

specimen fractures.

Calculations:
1. Modulus of Rupture

2. Maximum Stress due to initial load if present

3. Rate of Increase of Maximum Stress

Fracture Test (ASTM E2098):

1. This test method covers procedures for determining the breaking force of glass fiber-mesh following
their conditioning in an alkali solution.
Thermal Shock Resistance of Glass
Containers(ASTM C149-14):
1. This test method covers the determination of the relative thermal shock resistance of commercial bottles
and jars and is intended to apply to all types of glass containers that are required to withstand sudden
changes in temperature in service. The test apparatus consists essentially of a basket for holding the
glassware upright, a hot water tank, a cold water tank, and a timed means for immersing and transferring
the basket from the hot to the cold bath. Indicating controllers or dial thermometers should be used to
maintain the temperatures of the baths. Test procedures included in this specification include pass tests,
progressive tests to a predetermined percent of breakage, total progressive tests, and high-level tests.
Flexure Tests (ASTM C1161):

• Extremely low ductility of ceramic materials does not allow measuring their mechanical properties by
conventional tensile test, which is widely used for metals.

• Brittle Materials, including ceramics, are tested by Flexure Test (Transverse Beam Test, Bending Test).

• There are two standard Flexure Test methods:

• 3-point Flexure Test • 4-point Flexure Test

3-Point Flexure Test
• In this test a specimen with round, rectangular or flat cross-section is placed on two parallel supporting
pins.

• The loading force is applied in the middle by means loading pin.

• This configuration provides uniform loading of the specimen and prevents friction between the
specimen and the supporting pins.
4-Point Flexure Test
• In this test the loading force is applied by means of two loading pins with a distance between them equal
to a half of the distance between the supporting pins.
Flexural strength calculation:
σ = 3LF/(2bd²) in 3-point test of rectangular specimen

σ = 3Fa/(bd²) in 4-point test of rectangular specimen

σ = 16Fa/(πD³) in 4-point test of round specimen

= 2Fa/(πr³)

Where

L – specimen length;
F – total force applied to the specimen by two loading pins;
b – specimen width;
d – specimen thickness;
r – specimen section radius;
a - distance between the supporting and loading pins;
D – section diameter of round specimen.
Impact Tests (ASTM C368):
Ceramic Impact Tester predicts the resistance to
impact breakage of ceramic products in service,
which covers two test methods:

1. Impact tests at the centre of both flatware and

hollow ware and at the rim or hollow ware.

2. Chipping tests at the rim of flatware. Specimens

may be either glazed or unglazed.
Thermal Shock Resistance of Ceramic:
• The thermal shock behaviour of Si3N4 has been determined with a new type of computer-controlled
testing equipment. Thin circular disks are heated up to 1350°C with two tungsten halogen lamps
yielding heating rates up to 1000°C/s. The sample temperature is measured in situ with an infrared
pyrometer and used to calculate the transient thermal stresses. The simple geometry of radially
orientated notches allows in situ observation of the crack growth behaviour during thermal shock.
Measured failure times are used to determine the fracture toughness of the material under thermal
shock loading, KcTS, from room temperature (RT) up to 1000°C. Comparison of the results with
KIcSENB values measured by the single-edge notch beam method at RT shows excellent agreement.
Glass Quality:
The flaws in glassware are typically unavoidable, but they can be minimised during production. The most
common glass defects you should be aware of include: bubbles, holes, shards, smears, and dents.

Types of the quality:

• Quality of a Tempered Glass

• Quality of Annealing Glass

• Glass Density Test

Tempered Glass Quality:
• Some companies try to use manual inspection at the entrance to the furnace. But it is worth noting that this
method can be unreliable, as the lighting may not always be ideal and horizontal glass surfaces are difficult
to examine.

• Defects can easily be missed, especially when you are solely relying on the staff to examine the material
visually for defects due to distractions in sight, lack of motivation, or fatigue. Therefore, implementing top
quality control measures can be advantageous for an organization.
Annealing Glass Quality:
• This test method covers the determination of the annealing point of a simply loaded glass beam.

• The annealing and strain points shall be obtained following a specified procedure after direct calibration of
the apparatus using beams of standard glasses having known annealing and strain points such as those
supplied and certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
 Glass Density Test:
• The glass density test is a quick and easy way to indirectly detect unexpected changes in the glass
composition, due to mistakes in the raw materials batch and mixing process.

• The glass density test is the process of testing the density of a glass specimen and comparing it with
previous results, thereby monitoring significant deviations.

Glass Density can be measured by:

• Directly determining mass and volume (usually by

water displacement)

• Comparison by flotation
1-Optical Methods:
• Optical methods are the most used in ceramics testing. They can be applied to examine the surface or,
under certain conditions, areas close to the surface. Their lateral resolution is high and only limited by the
wavelength to a few micrometers.

Types of Optical Methods:

• Visual Inspection • Laser Speckle Photometry

• Penetrant Testing • Thermography

• Infrared Transmission • Optical Coherence Tomography

Visual Inspection:
• In many cases, the component surface is examined and evaluated with the naked eye or with optical aids
such as magnifying glasses, microscopes, endoscopes, or control mirrors, but currently also increasingly
with the support of camera technology. In addition to defects, deviations in the dimensions can also be
recorded and individual elements/form elements can be counted.
Penetrant Testing:
• In the ceramic industry the Fuchsin test is used. Fuchsin is a dye of the triphenylmethane group, which has
an intense red colour in aqueous solution and produces a strong colour contrast on light-coloured ceramic
surfaces.

• After the developer’s exposure time, which varies depending on the material and test equipment system,
the defects become clearly visible on the surface.

• The advantages of the penetrant method are a fast inspection of the entire surface of the workpiece and
the possibility of testing components of different and even complicated. Large shapes parts can be tested
as well as many smaller ones from a mass production at the same time.
Thermography:
• Thermography is a noncontact method in which the heat radiation emitted by a surface is recorded allowing
to conclude about the surface temperature.

• Well-known thermographic applications are, for example:

• The detection of weak thermal insulation in buildings.

• The detection of heat sources such as living creatures outdoors.

• The detection of hot spots in defective electrical circuits.

Infrared Transmission:
• Infrared (IR) radiography is a rather new method. It works like thermography with effects in the infrared
spectral range of light. In contrast to the thermography, it does not use the radiation emitted at the
specimen’s surface, but the infrared light transmitted from a source through the specimen. This way it
allows to get information from the inside of the specimens.
2-X-Ray Methods:
• The X-ray method uses electromagnetic radiation with photon energy in the range between 5 keV and 15
MeV. X-rays penetrate matter and are absorbed, diffracted, or scattered as they pass through it.
3-Ultrasonic Testing:

• For ceramic materials, ultrasonic microscopy (scanning acoustic microscope (SAM)) with test frequencies
greater than 100 MHz is usually used. Special high-frequency and strongly focusing sensors are used, the
inspection sometimes takes place in a water bath, and the scanning device must be highly precise to
achieve the high resolution.