The Glass Blowing Shop

The function of the Glassblowing shop is to provide high-quality glassware for teaching and research purposes.

The Glass shop uses a variety of types of glass, ranging from soda-lime and lead, to borosilicate and quartz glass, configured as tubing, rod and plate. A wide variety of pre-formed components such as ground glass joints, stopcocks, windows and glass -to -metal seals are integrated into pieces of apparatus as required. The glassblowing lathe permits the manipulation of borosilicate tube up to 150mm diameter, and quartz tube up to 60mm. The shop is also equipped to do flat grinding.

The shop staff normally does design work in conjunction with individual researchers and does installation work on request.

While principally intended to meet the needs of the Chemistry Department, the shop has done work for over twenty departments on campus on a regular basis. It has also worked for a wide variety of local industries.