More About Schott Glass

So I realize that before I left, I was really vague about the company I'm working for, because I really had no idea what they did. I have spent the entire week either in the European Sales Meeting or in a training session for new employees, so I've gotten a much better idea of what's going on.

Schott Glass, AG makes all kinds of specialized glass products in five major areas: Home Tech, Fiberoptics, Advanced Materials, Pharmaceuticals, and Solar Technology. They have other product areas as well, but those are the major ones. Among the products they make are glass-ceramic stove tops for induction cooking (these things are really super nifty), the make components for all kinds of electrical systems (including cell phones, flat panel displays, and BMWs haha my favorite!), lenses for everything from microscopes to giant astronomy telescopes, solar panels, pharmaceutical packaging like syringes, bottles, etc. The list goes on. The thing they're really getting press for right now is a huge solar energy plant they're building in New Mexico. I'm working in the Advanced Optical Materials department, which handles glass and glass ceramic products mostly for lenses. Among these products is this stuff called Zerodur, which is used in virtually every big telescope you've ever heard of, because it has negligible thermal expansion (a few millimeters, even when it's subjected to extreme temperature changes).

Today I got a tour of the Zerodur production floor, which is virtually the only product that is still produced in Mainz. It was really cool to see the giant melting vats, the coolers, the huge saws and grinders. The whole process of making Zerodur takes anywhere from 3 to 12 months, because if it's cooled too quickly, it warps the material. This is all probably pretty boring for you guys, but I thought some of you might be interested. I'm bored half the time and really interested for the rest of it. Next week I find out what my duties will be! Can't wait to get to the actual marketing.