How mirrors are made
History of Mirrors
As we all know mirrors are used in our day-to-day life. It is an important part of our lifestyle activities like fashion makeup and grooming etc. The earlier mirrors were curved pieces of highly polished metals like brass or bronze. In the 14th-century crude glass mirrors are made that reflected off a metallic backing. In the 18th century, the silver-backed mirror was developed by a German chemist, that we know today. Then the secret of mirror-making spread to other cities or countries.
The custom mirror creation process
A mirror starts as a clear glass, a robot lays each panel horizontally on a conveyor belt, that is transported to the washing station. At the station, the sprayers blast the glass with water and cerium oxide. Cerium oxide is a powder derived from a type of earth. Rotating brushes scrub and polish both the top and bottom surfaces removing oils and other contaminants. This washing process takes about a minute per panel.
The sprayers rinse the glass with piping-hot demineralized water because the minerals in plain tap water would damage the metals. The first metal is liquefied which goes on what will be the back of the mirror. Then it allows the second metal silver to adhere because silver won’t stick directly to the glass.
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The silver is also in liquid form mixed with a chemical activator, within seconds of interacting with the tin it hardens. You then begin to see the reflection, which is the silver backing that transforms clear glass into a mirror. The sprayers rinse off the excess silver which gets recycled back into the system.
Glass & mirror creations
The company will seal this silver backing with two coats of paint. The paint is not enough to protect the silver in the long term. So they first spray on a layer of copper. The sprayers then rinse off the excess copper. Then the panel passes through a dryer at [160] degrees Fahrenheit. Then this evaporates the moisture on the surface in just [75] seconds.
The panel then passes the copper side up known as the curt encoder. It’s a machine that runs a continuous curtain of paint across the conveyor belt. The mirror then passes through an oven heated to [99] degrees Celsius. After [1] minute and [45] seconds, the paint is cured at a higher temperature of [118] degrees Celsius. After an acid wash to remove any metal residues, they stand the panel upright to inspect it. If the worker finds any fault like a bubble in the glass, they cut that portion out. The larger panels are cut into whatever size and shape, the customer has ordered. It is done by using a special mirror-cutting machine, guided by computer software.
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The company scores the mirror using a carbide wheel, which is a strong metal. As to make round mirrors, the machine first scores the panel into squares. Then each square scores a circle. Using the special tools, the company workers separate the squares, then the circles.
How to bevel mirrors are created
To make beveled mirrors, the company uses the shape bevel machine. First, it carved out the edge then polishes it to a shine by using a concentrated cerium oxide to clean the glass surface.