Mirrors Manufacturing Process
No bathrooms complete without one mirror and any parent will tell you that no teenager can survive without one mirror.
Mirror on the wall how do they make you
after all well how it’s made ?but first let’s reflect on the history of mirrors the earliest mirrors were curved pieces of highly polished metal such as brass or bronze in the 14th century .The Venetians invented very crude glass mirrors that reflected off the metallic backing. Which later perfected this technique using an amalgam of tin and Mercury. Eventually the secret of mirror making spread to other cities by 1835 a German chemist developed the silver-backed mirror .
We know today a mirror starts out as clear glass a rautomatic lays each panel horizontally on a conveyer belt which transports it to the washing station.
A Spurrier’s blast the glass with water and cerium oxide a powder derived from a type of Earth rotating brushes scrub and polish both the top and bottom. Surfaces removing oils and other contaminants this washing process takes about a minute per panel.
Next the sprayers rinse the glass with piping hot demineralized water demineralized because the minerals in plain tap water
would damage the metals. They apply next the first metal is liquefied tin which goes on what will be the back of the mirror it. Allows the second metal silver to adhere because silver won’t stick
directly to glass the silver. It is also in liquid form mixed with a chemical activator within seconds of interacting with the tin it hardens and as it does.
It begin to see a reflection it’s this silver backing that transforms clear glass into a mirror sprayers. rinse off the excess silver which gets recycled back into the system the factory will seal this silver.
Backing with two coats of paint by itself however isn’t enough to protect the silver in the long term. so they first spray on a layer of copper sprayers rinse off the excess copper then the panel passes through a dryer at moisture on the surface in just 75 seconds.
Now the paddle passes copper side up through what’s called the Curt encoder a machine that runs a continuous curtain of paint. Across the conveyor belt with its fresh coat of paint the mirror then passes through an oven heated to 99 degrees Celsius after a minute and 45 seconds.
The paint is cured now the second coat of paint there’s no reason for the different color other than to differentiate the coats the curingPeriod. This time is twice as long and at a higher temperature 118 degrees Celsius after an acid wash to remove any metal residues. It stands the panel upright to inspect it if they find a fault such as a bubble in the glass.
It cut that portion out the factory now cuts these large panels into whatever size and shape the customer has ordered using a special mirror cutting machine .Which is precision guided by computer software it scores the mirror using a carbide wheel carbide is a strong metal to make round mirrors.
The machine first stores the panel into squares then in each square it scores a circle using special tools workers separate the squares than the circles. To make beveled mirrors they use what’s called the shape bevel machine first it carves out the edge then polishes it to
a shine. Using a concentrated cerium oxide a stronger version of what they used earlier to clean the glass surface before plating it. With the metals mirror factories also ship whole panels to shops that do the cutting themselves a fragile feat that’s certainly not for the superstitious.
