How is a mirror made
Mirrors - How its made
no bathrooms complete without one 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 is about to show you
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 they're even
mentioned in the Bible then in the 14th
century the Venetians invented very
crude glass mirrors that reflected off
the metallic backing they 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 that
we know today a mirror starts out as
clear glass a robot lays each panel
horizontally on a conveyer belt which
transports it to the washing station
they're 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 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 is also in
liquid form mixed with a chemical
activator within seconds of interacting
with the tin it hardens and as it does
you 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 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
71 degrees Celsius this evaporates the
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 curing
period this time is twice as long and at
a higher temperature 118 degrees Celsius
after an acid wash to remove any metal
residues they stand the panel upright to
inspect it if they find a fault such as
a bubble in the glass they 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 that's 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 concentrated cerium oxide
a stronger version of what they used
earlier to clean the glass surface
before plating it with metals mirror
factories also ship whole panels to
shops that do the cutting themselves a
fragile feat that's certainly not for
the superstitious if you have any
comments about the show or if you'd like
to suggest topics for future shows drop
us a line at www.madamebridal.com
