The production process of medicinal glass bottles mainly includes the following steps: raw material preparation, melting, molding, annealing, inspection and packaging.
Raw material preparation: The main raw material of medicinal glass bottles is silicon dioxide (SiO₂), and quartz sand is usually used as the main component. In addition, some auxiliary raw materials, such as soda ash (Na₂CO₃) and limestone (CaCO₃), are added to adjust the chemical composition and properties of the glass. These raw materials need to be strictly screened and purified to ensure the purity and quality of the glass. Melting: After the prepared raw materials are mixed in a certain proportion, they are placed in a furnace for melting. The temperature of the furnace is usually above 1500℃ to ensure that the raw materials are completely melted into liquid glass. During the melting process, the glass liquid needs to be continuously stirred and mixed to ensure that its composition is uniform, and the temperature and atmosphere of the furnace are controlled to avoid defects such as bubbles and stones in the glass liquid. Molding: The molten glass liquid is molded through a mold. Common molding methods include blowing and pressing. The blowing method is to put the glass liquid into the mold and blow it into the desired shape by blowing air. It is suitable for producing pharmaceutical glass bottles with more complex shapes; the pressing method is to pour the glass liquid into the mold and press the glass hydraulically into shape by a press. It is suitable for producing pharmaceutical glass bottles with simpler shapes.
Annealing: The formed pharmaceutical glass bottles need to be annealed to eliminate the stress inside the glass and improve the strength and stability of the glass. The annealing process is to put the glass bottle into the annealing furnace, slowly heat it to a certain temperature, then keep it for a period of time, and then slowly cool it to room temperature.
Inspection: The annealed pharmaceutical glass bottles need to be strictly inspected to ensure that their quality meets the relevant standards and requirements. Inspection items include appearance inspection, size measurement, physical property test, chemical property test, etc. Appearance inspection mainly checks whether there are bubbles, stones, cracks and other defects on the surface of the glass bottle; size measurement mainly checks whether the diameter, height, wall thickness and other dimensions of the glass bottle meet the requirements; physical property testing mainly tests the strength, hardness, heat resistance and other properties of the glass bottle; chemical property testing mainly tests the corrosion resistance, chemical stability and other properties of the glass bottle.
Packaging and storage: Qualified pharmaceutical glass bottles are packaged and stored. Packaging usually uses cartons or pallets to protect the glass bottles from damage during transportation and storage. The storage environment needs to be kept dry, ventilated and clean to prevent the glass bottles from being affected by moisture, pollution, etc.