Glass Industry
Quality Silica Sand for Quality Glass Products
Quality silica sand is the main ingredient for all types of standard and specialty glass.
When Your Glassmaking Operation Needs Purity, Pontotoc Has You Covered
Manufacturers choose silica sand with the highest purity possible because the SiO2 content in the sand is what determines the color, clarity, and strength of the final product.
Pontotoc Sand and Stone mines high purity silica sand from the St. Petersburg and Oil Creek Reserve sandstone formations that are known for their clarity and strength. While our product is mainly geared toward hydraulic fracture mining, the quality of our sand, coupled with our painstaking processes of cleaning and sorting it by size, makes it ideally suited for glassmaking purposes.
What Is Industrial Silica Sand?
Commercial silica sand is a product that’s in very high demand. Not only is sand used as a main component for glassmaking, but it’s also used as a proppant for hydraulic fracking. The qualities that make silica sand such an important material is the high SiO2 content that gives it its clarity and strength. It’s also chemically inert and has a very high melting point, making it a key factor for foundries and filtration facilities. Industrial sand for glassmaking isn’t simply taken from the ground and shipped to the consumer; it must go through a careful process that removes impurities and sorts the individual granules by size to provide the optimal product for its intended use.
In its pulverized form, silica sand is used to make fiberglass insulation and reinforcing fibers used for everything from surfboards to airplanes.
How Is Glass Made Out of Sand?
Industrial sand is melted down using an exact process and is made into plate glass for buildings, automotive glass, and decorative glass that can be molded into any shape. The process starts by measuring the purity of the SiO2 content in the sand. Pontotoc has some of the highest purity sand that’s commercially available, and while our product is ready to go as soon as it’s delivered, sand from other sources may need to be cleaned and sized.
Chemical compounds that increase strength, change the color, or provide clarity are added to the sand depending on its intended use, and the mixture is heated to between 1,500 and 2,000 degrees Celsius to be melted into a liquid. The mixture is stirred, and any contaminants are removed. What is left is molten glass that can be shaped and cooled to be used for thousands of applications.
We Have a Responsibility To Protect the Environment
We take every precaution to protect and benefit the surrounding landscape. Our industrial sand mining operations are geared toward recycling the water we use and preserving the surrounding area to mitigate any negative impact on the environment. These efforts have lowered the footprint of our mine areas, conserved water and energy, and preserved natural habitats.
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