Hollow glass microspheres, also known as decorative glass beads, have been used for at least 100 years. In 1922 large quantities of high refractive-index glass beads were produced to coat movie screens. Since that time, many industries started to rely on solid and hollow glass microspheres as a major component in their products and processes.
Initially used primarily as a filler for plastics in the 1960s, hollow glass microspheres found applications in in many industries and thousands of applications including aerospace and military materials, moulded plastic components, retroreflective highway signs, oil and gas, recreation, paints and coatings, transportation, construction, mining explosives, personal care, cosmetics and consumer products.
In recent years, hollow glass microspheres have become popular due to the availability of high quality hollow glass microspheres with perfectly sphericity, tight tolerances and particle size distributions available on the market. These industries include biomedical, life sciences, microscopy, automotive, high-tech equipment and specialty applications. Solid glass microspheres, spheres, and beads offer an inert high-strength precision particle for use as reference, calibration and spacer applications. They act as mini-magnifying glasses to deliver visually truer colours and can clarify and magnify the visual impact of pigments and metallic flakes, creating a richer, wetter, and deeper look in paint and coatings.
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