Topic:

Is Borosilicate Glass Healthy To Use?

As people are getting exceedingly health-conscious, it has become very obvious that they don’t merely pay attention to what they eat or drink. These days, they also pay attention to the packing materials or containers in which their food and drinks come. The daily use utensils and even microwave savvy dishes are expected to be made of high-quality materials that are safe to use and do not react with the food components contained within.

Under the scrutiny of these valid health concerns, Borosilicate Glass is among those materials that can withstand any health standard scrutiny and safe usage expectation.

What is Borosilicate Glass?

Borosilicate glass is a special type of glass made with silica and boron trioxide. The finished product consisting of these two glass-forming components will have a significantly low thermal expansion coefficient. This allows any product, such as glasses, made of this specific material quite resistant to any thermal shocks, especially when compared to other common types of glasses. This resistance of borosilicate glass to breakage is considered the main reason why it is widely used for glassware in wineries, laboratories, and fine-dining restaurants.

Borosilicate Glass and Health Concerns

To put any health concerns to rest, rest assured that Borosilicate glass is entirely non-toxic, lead, and BPA-free. This is why it is heavily used to make bottles, jugs, and other cookware. Any sort of edibles can be easily stored in borosilicate glass containers without compromising the taste or molecular integrity of any type of food product. Dishes made of borosilicate glass are commonly used in microwaves and baking ovens without causing any structural damage to the dishes or raising any health concerns for the food prepared in them. After cooking, these dishes can be conveniently cleaned in dishware too.

Borosilicate glass is highly resistant to chemical, heat, and acid degradation. So, the bottles or containers made with it can withstand exposure to refrigeration and even direct sunlight without releasing any harmful toxins and compromising the substances they carry. This is a particularly common problem with bottles and containers made with plastic or even expensive stainless steel.

This glass is extensively preferred because it is made of environment-friendly and sustainable raw materials that are found abundantly and are relatively easy to acquire too.

Why Borosilicate Glass is a Superior Choice

The major reason behind the popularity of Borosilicate Glass is its numerous qualities making it a harmless yet greatly useful material. Here are all the best qualities of glass made of borosilicate:

• Optical Clarity

Compared to any other material, borosilicate glass has the best clarity, making it the choice material for high-end crockery and observational boxes in scientific experiments.

• Cleanability

Borosilicate glass has a non-porous and anti-stick surface which makes it exceptionally easy to clean and adds to the long-term usability of the products.

• Corrosion Resistance

This particular material offers unprecedented resistance to corrosion. It can easily take water, acidic and neutral substances, organic mixtures, etc., without compromising the composition of materials stored within, even at high temperatures and over extended periods.  

• Temperature Resistance

Resistance to temperature is an innate ability of borosilicate glass. This is why containers made of this glass are commonly used in pharmaceutical and chemical processes.

• Structural Integrity

Borosilicate glass displays extraordinary structural integrity mainly because of its low thermal expansion. It does not expand like ordinary glass and retains its shape under high temperatures.

• Affordability

The cost of production for borosilicate glass is much lower compared to any other similar material. Likewise, its maintenance is also cheap and easy. For these reasons, its usage is gaining popularity day by day.

• Inert Behavior

Borosilicate glass lacks a catalyst effect as it does not promote ion exchange. This inert nature of this glass makes it non-flammable and environment-friendly, which in turn makes it an ideal storage container for the food and beverage industry.

What are the Common Applications of Borosilicate Glass?

With all the amazing health and environment-friendly quality of borosilicate glass-based products, here are some common applications of it:

• Aircraft Exterior Lenses

Aircraft have borosilicate glass lenses because they offer clear optical properties that promote transmissibility. They also have the ability to withstand any temperature differential that is often experienced at high altitudes during flight.

• Aquarium Heaters

It is a very common application of borosilicate glass when the heater tubes are exposed to a thermal gradient by the internal nichrome heating element and significantly colder waters in a tank.

• High-Intensity Lighting Products

Lighting products such as stage lights that are mainly used in the film industry have borosilicate glass lenses. These lights can gain very high temperatures when used for an extended period. Other lighting products with high-intensity discharge (HID), such as metal halide lamps, have either borosilicate glass lenses or at least outer envelopes made with it.

• Laboratory Glassware

Borosilicate glass is ideal for creating laboratory glassware, including Petri dishes, beakers, bottles, test tubes, flasks, microscope slides, funnels, etc. It is also used to manufacture measuring instruments like graduated cylinders, pipettes, etc.

• Scientific Lenses

Molding borosilicate glass into highly precise optical components like lenses for telescopes and similar optical devices where precision is a major requirement is its significant use. It ensures that the optical properties of these lenses are sustained even with temperature changes which is ideal because the lens does not change its dimensions more than a negligible level.

• Sight Glass

For certain industrial processes, the tanks have sight glasses fabricated from borosilicate glass. These sight glasses provide a visual monitoring convenience without the hassle of opening and closing the tanks or storage vessels where you risk interrupting the process.

• Thermal Insulation

The high thermal resistance property of borosilicate glass makes it an ideal material to fabricate the thermal tiles that protect the space shuttle from over-heating upon re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere.

Conclusion

Borosilicate glass is a safe material for all kinds of usage, especially for cookware and containers for food and beverages. However, it has several other useful applications. With all these amazing qualities and uses, if any product is made of borosilicate glass, it is right to assume it will be of good quality and safe to use for a long while.