The design and development of a glass container composition remains important to glassmakers and the selection of the raw materials is a vital step. In this article, the purity and composition of a number of potential raw materials is reviewed and several prospective glass compositions explored. There are often a number of alternatives that may be chosen such as alkali content, viscosity, or a fixed final composition, and each route provides an alternative glass formulation. A series of melting trials have been carried out to investigate the effect of changes in the formulation and to explore the possibility that feldspathic and quartz-based silica sources may demonstrate different melting and refining characteristics depending on the final glass chemistry targeted for by glassmakers. The impact of these factors on total glass manufacturing is examined.
