Glass Balls

We can provide you with Soda Lime Borosilicate, Black and Quartz (SiO2) Glass Balls. Soda Lime Glass Balls are most common. They are Light weight glass balls, chemically inert and they allow to get excellent surface finishing. Applications are special bearings and valves, plastic bearings, low-cost check valves, metering pumps, flow meters, measurement instruments, agitators, optic fiber devices, ink cartridges, closures for bottle, shot blasting, grinding and they are even used in art and decoration fields. Typical applications for the other balls are described on the page below.

Main specifications of Glass Balls

Material Properties GLASS bALLSUnitsSoda LimeBorosilicateBlackQuartz (SiO2)
Specific gravity or Densityg/cm32,52,232,572,2
Young’s modulusE (GPa)70646673
Refractive indexn1,5181,4711,5201,459
Softening temperature (Room)ºC7268216501650
Coefficient of lineair thermal expansion (20ºC to 1000ºC)X10(-6)/ºC9.43,307,20,5
Thermal conductivity Roomtemperature)W/(m.K)1,01,150,761,42
Volume resistivityOhm*m<1>10(15)>10(14)>10(15)
Relative magnetic permeabilitymu<1<1<1<1
HardnessMohs6667
Ultimate compressive strenghtpsix10(3)131-159275-305109-138152-166
Available in sizesmm1 – 1001 – 1001 – 1000,3 – 10
Chemical and Main SpecificationSSoda LimeBorosilicateBlackQuartz (SiO2)
SiO263-81%65-85%65-75%99,9%
MgO< 6%
AL2O3< 2%1-5%max 1%
LIO2<2%
Na2O9-15%3-9%9,5-15,5%
CaO7-14%max 2,5%
MnO25-7%
TiO2max 0,8%
Fe2O3max 0,8%
PbOmax 0,01
K2Omax 1,5%max 2%2-3%
Other0,01%

Three other availabla types of Glass Balls

Black Glass Balls: Medical and chemical flowmeters, aircraft slips, turn indicators. Variety of functions, most common use into precision instruments.

Borosilicate: Special valves, safety valves, metering pumps. They are used in the pharmaceutical field and photographic devices.

Quartz (SiO2): Optical devices and anti-reflective coatings.

Most common shape is the ball, spherical, shape. The smaller media are often beads or micro beads, For beads the shape is not always spherical. Most of the media can also have other shapes. Please ask if you have special requirements.