Glass Cutting Approach
The cutting process is selected according to whether the part requires straight lines, complex curves, internal cutouts, tight dimensional tolerance or controlled tube and rod length.
Our glass cutting capabilities include:
- Water Jet Cutting
- Scribe Cutting
- Precision XY Sawing
- Laser Cutting
- Tube & Rod Cutting
- Hand Cutting
The same cutting methods can be used across a broad range of technical, optical, coated and specialty glass substrates.
Consult UsWaterjet Glass Cutting
Waterjet cutting is used for glass components requiring curved profiles, holes, internal cutouts and irregular external shapes that are difficult to produce with conventional straight-line cutting.
It is particularly useful for thicker glass and larger parts where flexible geometry is more important than the very tight tolerances available from precision sawing.
- Cut tolerance: 0.50 mm [0.020 in]
- Glass thickness: 1.00–38.1 mm [0.040–1.500 in]
- Minimum part size: 51 × 51 mm [2 × 2 in]
- Maximum part size: 2,286 × 1,168 mm [90 × 46 in]
- Suitable for cutouts, holes, curves and custom profiles
Waterjet Cutting Examples
Glass Tube & Rod Cutting
Glass tubes and rods can be cut to controlled finished lengths for laboratory, industrial, optical and fabricated glass assemblies.
The process supports small-diameter tubing and rod through large tubular components.
- Cut tolerance: 0.25 mm [0.010 in]
- Diameter range: 3.18–177.8 mm [0.125–7.00 in]
- Maximum incoming material length: 1,524 mm [60 in]
- Finished part length: 38.1–635 mm [1.50–25 in]
Glass Tube & Rod Cutting Examples
Scribe Glass Cutting
Scribe cutting is an economical and efficient process for square and rectangular glass components. It is well suited to large sheet formats where the required geometry consists primarily of straight cuts.
Compared with waterjet cutting, scribe cutting provides substantially tighter cut tolerance and supports much larger sheet sizes, but it is not intended for the same type of complex internal curves and irregular cutouts.
- Cut tolerance: 0.13 mm [0.005 in]
- Glass thickness: 0.15–25.40 mm [0.006–1.000 in]
- Minimum part size: 51 × 51 mm [2 × 2 in]
- Maximum part size: 3,556 × 2,438 mm [140 × 96 in]
Scribe Cutting Examples
Precision XY Sawing
Precision XY sawing is used for slicing and dicing thin glass components where substantially tighter dimensional control is required than conventional cutting processes.
Glass thickness
0.50–4.00 mm [0.020–0.157 in]Cut tolerance
0.03 mm [0.001 in]Advantages of Precision XY Sawing
- Tightest published cut tolerance among the cutting methods on this page
- Suitable for thin technical and optical glass
- Controlled X-Y cutting for repeatable component geometry
- Suitable for precision slicing and dicing
- Can be used on coated and specialty glass substrates
Precision Sawing Applications
- Optical glass components
- Filter glass
- Thin technical glass
- Small precision substrates
- Coated or treated glass requiring controlled sizing
Additional Glass Cutting Methods
In addition to waterjet, scribe, precision sawing and tube/rod cutting, laser and conventional hand-cutting methods are also available for projects where those processes better match the glass type, geometry and required production method.
Laser Cutting
Laser cutting is available as part of the glass cutting capability range for applications requiring a non-conventional cutting route.
Hand Cutting
Hand cutting provides an economical option for glass parts that do not require the tighter tolerances of CNC, precision sawing or other controlled cutting processes.
The source page does not provide separate dimensional or tolerance ranges for these two methods, so no additional numerical capability is assigned here.
Glass Materials We Cut
The cutting processes can be applied to a broad range of technical, optical, coated and specialty glasses, including:
- Borofloat®
- Filter Glass
- Float Glass — Soda-Lime & Low-Iron
- D263
- B270
- Gorilla® Glass
- Teleprompter Mirror
- Anti-Reflective & Non-Glare Glass
- Pattern Glass
Cut tolerance depends on the selected process, glass thickness, sheet size and finished geometry.
Custom Glass Cutting
From large-format rectangular glass to complex waterjet profiles, thin precision-cut substrates and cut-to-length tubes or rods, the cutting method can be selected around the geometry, glass thickness, size and required tolerance.
Not all published tolerances can be maintained across every thickness and sheet size. Thicker and larger glass generally requires wider cutting tolerances.
Request a Quote