Pyroceram is the original
glass-ceramic material developed and
trademarked by
Corning Glass
Corning Incorporated is an American multinational technology company that specializes in specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advanced optics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. The co ...
in the 1950s.
Pyroceram is an opaque, white, glass material, commonly used in kitchenware, glass stove tops, wood stove doors, etc.. It has high heat tolerance and low thermal expansion.
Development
Its development has been traced to Corning's work in developing
photosensitive glass.
Corning credits
S. Donald Stookey
Stanley Donald Stookey (May 23, 1915 – November 4, 2014) was an American inventor. He had 60 patents in his name related to glass and ceramics, some patents solely his and others shared as joint patents with other inventors. His discoveries and ...
with the discovery of Pyroceram. While conducting research in 1953 on a photosensitive lithium silicate glass called Fotoform containing a dispersion of
silver nanoparticle
Silver nanoparticles are nanoparticles of silver of between 1 nm and 100 nm in size. While frequently described as being 'silver' some are composed of a large percentage of silver oxide due to their large ratio of surface to bulk sil ...
s, Stookey noted that an accidentally overheated fragment of the glass resisted breakage when dropped.
This discovery evolved into Pyroceram, with β-
spodumene as the crystalline phase, and was used in 1958 for the production of
CorningWare cookware. Pyroceram's thermal stability also results in its being used for mirrors in astronomical telescopes.
A transparent version of Pyroceram, with β-
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...
as the crystalline phase, was also described in 1950s patents. By 1963 this variant was also being seriously studied for use in making cookware. It would be extensively explored over the next two decades and result in the creation of
Visions cookware, by Corning France, in the late 1970s.
The manufacture of the material involves controlled
crystallization.
[ ]NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...
classifies it as a glass-ceramic product.NIST
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sc ...
as a certified reference material for thermal conductivity
The thermal conductivity of a material is a measure of its ability to conduct heat. It is commonly denoted by k, \lambda, or \kappa.
Heat transfer occurs at a lower rate in materials of low thermal conductivity than in materials of high thermal ...
measurements.
Trademark
Pyroceram was originally a proprietary brand name. Corning registered Pyroceram as a trademark for glass-ceramic vessels and utensils in 1958, and in 1966 added polished glass-ceramic tabletops and countertops to the registered uses of the brand name. Both of those registrations have since ended.
See also
*National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...
.
References
External links
The NPL Measurements Contribution to the Certification of Pyroceram 9606 as a Reference Material for Thermal Properties
Corning Visions
- X-ray fluorescence test results
Glass-ceramics
Corning Inc.
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