Composites and ceramics

• Soda lime glass


  Most common type of glass, ideal for items such as windows and bottles
• Making soda lime glass

  1. Mix sand, sodium carbonate and limestone

  2. Heat in furnace until melts

  3. Cools and solidifies into desired shape
• Soda lime glass


  • Has relatively low melting point, limiting its uses
• Borosilicate glass


  Has higher melting point than soda lime glass, useful for objects requiring heating like kitchenware and labware
• Making borosilicate glass


  Melt a mixture of sand and boron trioxide
• Clay ceramics


  Ceramics made from clay, a mineral found in the ground, which can be shaped when wet and then hardened by heating
• Clay ceramic products

  • Pottery
  • Bricks
• Composites


  Made by combining two different materials, with a reinforcement material surrounded by a matrix or binder
• Composites

  • Carbon fiber composite (carbon fiber reinforcement, plastic resin matrix)
  • Reinforced concrete (steel bar reinforcement, concrete matrix)
• Composites


  • Have different properties to the individual materials