Comparison between glass bottle frosting and sandblasting

Sandblasting is a process that uses compressed air as a power source to push abrasives onto the surface of a workpiece for processing. This is called sandblasting, which is what we often call shot blasting. Because in the early days of shot blasting, sand was the only abrasive that could be used, so shot blasting was called sandblasting at the time and for a long time thereafter. Sandblasting can give the surface to be cleaned the required cleanliness and a certain degree of roughness, and improve the adhesion of the coating to the base surface. No matter how good the coating is, it cannot adhere to the surface of the workpiece without long-term surface treatment. The purpose of surface pretreatment is to clean the surface and produce the roughness required to “lock” the coating on the surface. After the workpiece surface after sandblasting is coated with a good-performance industrial coating, the service life of the coating is 3.5 times higher than that of the coating of the same quality on the surface treated by other methods. Another advantage of sandblasting (shot blasting) is that the surface roughness can be predetermined according to requirements and can be achieved during the cleaning process.

Frosting is the process of making a smooth glass bottle, such as a cosmetic glass bottle, become matte, and light irradiates the surface to form diffuse reflection. In chemical frosting, glass is mechanically ground or manually ground with corundum, silica sand, pomegranate powder and other abrasives to form a uniformly rough surface, or glass and other objects can be treated with hydrofluoric acid solution to form frosted glass.

Both frosting and sandblasting are used to cover the surface of the glass so that light forms a relatively uniform scattering after passing through the lampshade. It is difficult for ordinary users to distinguish between the two technologies. The following describes the manufacturing methods of the two technologies and how to identify them.

1. Frosting process

Frosting refers to immersing the glass in a prepared acidic liquid (or applying an acidic paste), corroding the surface of the glass with a strong acid, and the hydrogen fluoride ammonia in the strong acid solution causes crystals to form on the surface of the glass. Therefore, if the frosting process is done well, the surface of the frosted glass is very smooth, and the crystals formed by scattering produce a hazy effect. If the surface is relatively rough, it indicates that the acid is seriously eroding the glass, or some of them are still crystal-free. The characteristic of this process is the appearance of shiny crystals on the surface of the glass formed under critical conditions. The main reason is that the hydrogen fluoride ammonia has reached the point where it is almost exhausted. In order to achieve this state, many manufacturers have made many attempts and studies, but none of them have been able to overcome this difficulty.

2. Sandblasting technology

It uses sand particles ejected from a spray gun at high speed to hit the glass surface, forming a fine concave and convex surface, thereby achieving the effect of scattered light, and forming a hazy feeling when the light passes through. The surface of glass products produced by the sandblasting process feels rough. Because the glass surface is damaged, it looks like white glass on the photosensitivity of the original transparent glass.

The two processes are completely different. Frosted glass is more expensive than sandblasted glass, and the effect mainly depends on the needs of the user. Some unique glass is not suitable for frosting. From the perspective of noble pursuit, frosting should be chosen. Sandblasting can be completed in general factories, but frosting is not easy to do well.