Pyroceram

Pyroceram is the original glass-ceramic material developed and trademarked by Corning Glass in the 1950s. Pyroceram is the original glass-ceramic material developed and trademarked by Corning Glass in the 1950s. Its development has been traced to Corning's work in developing photosensitive glass. Corning credits S. Donald Stookey with the discovery of Pyroceram. While conducting research in 1953 on a photosensitive lithium silicate glass called Fotoform containing a dispersion of silver nanoparticles, Stookey noted that an accidentally overheated fragment of the glass resisted breakage when dropped. This discovery evolved into Pyroceram, with β-spodumene as the crystalline phase, and was used in 1958 for the production of CorningWare cookware. A transparent version of Pyroceram, with β-quartz as the crystalline phase, was also described in 1950's patents. By 1963 this variant was also being seriously studied for use in making cookware. It would be extensively explored over the next two decades and result in the creation of Visions cookware, by Corning France, in the late 1970's. The manufacture of the material involves controlled crystallization. NASA classifies it as a glass-ceramic product. After about 30 years of informal use as a standard in high heat (≥1000°C) applications, Pyroceram 9606 was approved by NIST as a certified reference material for thermal conductivity measurements.