What is Flat Glass?

Flat glass is the basic material that goes into end-products that we see (and see through) every day. It is used to make windscreens and windows for automobiles and transport, windows and façades for houses and buildings as well as in solar-energy equipements such as solar thermal panels and photovoltaic modules. It is also used, in much smaller quantities, for many other applications like interior fittings and decoration, furniture, "street furniture" (like bus stops for example), appliances and electronics, and others.

Flat glass is glass manufactured in flat sheets and therefore it excludes bottles, containers, fibreglass, rods, and tubes, which form other glass industries. Depending on the manufacturing process used, flat glass comes either as float glass, sheet glass or rolled glass. Glass produced by way of the float process represents the overwhelming majority of the production.

Modifications, both during and after the float process, are used to produce the main types of flat glass on the market today.