What would be the best type of heat insulator that would protect glass from breaking

[Kenneth Orellana]

My team and I want to make an item that heats up glass and melts objects off of it, such as ice, but we're not sure what kind of heat insulator would allow heat to travel all over the glass without generating any pressure on the glass.

 

[IRstuff]

I think you need to elaborate more, such as WHY you want to have this function. Airplane windows have de-icing functions without any additional insulation

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[pmover]

pyrex glassware . . .

agree with IT, need more data

 

[3DDave]

PYREX is low thermal expansion borosilicate glass. pyrex is not - it's soda-lime. Also, if it was made before they stopped using borosilicate exclusively, if the density of the glass is 2.23 or close you more than likely have borosilicate glass. Soda-lime has a density of 2.52 for comparison sake.

The breakage problem is from heat traveling through the glass; no insulator will help. What does help is not creating a thermal gradient through the glass by having too high a temperature difference from one side to the other. One might empirically determine that. For example, if one is defrosting a windshield, assume the air inside a vehicle starts at the temperature outside and then limit the air temperature of the defroster to some value that is seen to be OK, most likely by testing using hot-air sources and ice-coated glass.