How it works

GlassBot is a computer controlled 2D flatbed printer that distributes glass in frit, powder or paste form onto a substrate of either sheet glass, a kiln shelf or any other suitable base (eg a compacted frit). In the case of glass frit or powder printing, a vibrating nozzle print head, developed by Jeffrey Turner, delivers the programmed track of glass frit onto the substrate such as sheet glass. 

In the case of glass paste, a second print head, also developed by Jeffrey Turner, extrudes the glass paste under controlled pressure onto the substrate. The vibrating nozzle allows dot points of glass to be printed when it is in “Stop Drop Go” mode. The control software will run on any Windows 10 computer. In either of the possible print modes, once the glass is deposited, the work is transferred to the kiln for firing in the normal way.

The printer program controls the direction and speed of either the frit, powder or paste print head and so controls precisely how much and where the glass is deposited.  In this way a range of line or point thicknesses can be achieved.

The control software imports the data in the form of the widely used Scalar Vector Graphic (.svg) format.  This allows any polyline image that can be converted to .svg format to be imported and printed giving the artist an almost boundless scope of design possibilities. Up to 20,000 data points in a single polyline have been printed with GlassBot allowing continuous line lengths of tens of meters to be printed.  The available footprint area of GlassBot is 700 x 700mm.