Glass Ceramics for Household Appliances

1 Cooking Systems with Ceran High-Tech Appliances for the Kitchen 

Since the beginning of serial production of in January 1973 more than 60 million Ceran cooktop panels have been sold around the world. A market share of more than 70% for glass ceramics in sales of electric cooking apph-ances in Western Europe underlines the success of this product as an effective symbiosis of aesthetics and perfect technique. The properties of this exceptional material have set new standards in modern kitchens and revolutionized cooking habits in Europe. 

Also in Japan in 1962, a white nontransparent / -spodumene solid-solution glass ceramic was produced. Nippon Electric Glass manufactured cooktop panels imder the trademark Neoceram N-11. With a coefficient of thermal expansion of approximately 1.3 x 10 they were used for induction 

Another important and economically significant / -quartz solid solution glass ceramic for domestic appliances was Keraglass from Eurokera (joint venture of Corning/St. Gobain, USA/Prance), introduced into the market as EuroKera cooktop panels at the end of 1993. 

The success of Ceran is partly also due to the experience and knowhow gained in the development and production of Zerodur . Schott already started producing this technical glass ceramic in the 1960s. With its exceptional temperature stability (non-deforming when subjected to variations between —20°C and - -100°C) Zerodur has become the material of choice for optical precision applications such as space telescopes, for example (see Chap. 4). 

---

Transparent and Tinted Glass Ceramics for Household Appliances... 

The subsequent chapters, 3 and 4, are devoted to the description of the development and application of glass ceramics for household appliances and for optical instruments. 

---