Put simply, a sight glass is a transparent glass tube or window installed in a tank or boiler system that allows an observer to view what is happening inside the container, ensuring optimal quality and safety. Sight glasses can also serve a number of functions aside from basic viewing, but this is the most common use.
While “sight glass” is a general, overarching term, there are also several more specific terms that are used to refer to different types of sight glasses. Some of the most common types of sight glasses are outlined below.
Sight Glass Assembly
This is the traditional setup of a sight glass — a glass disc mounted between gaskets. One of the drawbacks of a sight glass assembly, however, is that it is exposed to mounting forces and pressure, which can create tiny cracks that compromise its integrity. For this reason, routine inspections are imperative.
Sight Glass Window
A sight glass window, often simply referred to as a glass window, consists of glass fused to a metal frame. This fusion creates a single-piece component, a design that strengthens the glass, as it is compressed rather than under tension. And since the metal frame absorbs the stress of the mounting, the glass is unaffected by residue, uneven bolts, and general wear and tear. This makes sight glass windows more cost-effective and reusable than other options. Due to their high strength, sight glass windows are frequently used in boilers and other pressurized systems.
Sight Port Window
In some instances, a sight glass is mounted on a tank with a lighting component. In these cases, the sight glass itself is referred to as a sight port window or viewport, and the operator can see inside the container through it. There are some instances in which the viewport and the light port may be combined in the same location on the container in order to reduce costs.
Common Sight Glass Applications
There are a number of uses for sight glasses and the varying forms they can take. A sight glass is especially useful for monitoring fluids in pipe systems, keeping an eye on the pressure in boilers, and ensuring that the pilot lights and heating elements are functioning properly in heating systems.
Sight glasses are used across a huge range of industries, including:
- Utilities and power
- Pharmaceuticals
- Food and beverage
- Biofuels
- Wastewater treatment and management
- And chemical/petrochemical
The most well-known application for sight glasses is monitoring fluids, since companies of all kinds must monitor fluids to ensure optimal quality and safety; after all, everything from petrochemical industries to craft breweries work with liquids. This makes sight glasses critical components for ensuring operations run smoothly and safely. Liquid level gauges, another form of sight glass, is often used in industries with storage tanks or containment systems designed to mix or ferment.
Sight glasses and sight glass windows, as mentioned earlier, are commonly used in industries that use pressurized systems; steam boilers and steam generators are found in a wide variety of industries, such as utilities and power generation, cement production, food and beverage, and dry cleaning. All processes that require pressurized systems or vaporization use sight glass windows in some manner for monitoring liquids and ensuring optimal safety. Boiler systems also use a more specialized type of sight glass, called boiler sight glass, to monitor the pressure within.
Industries that utilize heat or heat transfer make use of sight glasses as well; many of the heating systems in these applications contain a viewport or sight port to ensure the system is functioning properly. In these scenarios, the operators certainly can’t look directly inside the heating system to make sure the pilot lights or heating elements are still working, which is why the viewport is such a critical component in the overall system.
Glass Vs. Plastic Sight Glasses
Plastics have come a long way over the years, and there are some sight glass applications in which plastics are actually more efficient and cost-effective, such as food and beverage and other industries where sight glass is not a critical component. Plastic sight glasses are ubiquitous in everyday home products and applications, such as the fuel tanks in gas lawnmowers and leaf 
Of course, using plastics for sight glass does present some limitations. Industries involving intense heat, pressure, and certain corrosive chemicals still require actual glass to withstand the harsh conditions inherent in the processes.
How Fanovo Can Help
As technological upgrades occur regularly and new, more efficient systems are introduced every day across the industrial world, there is a growing need for sophisticated customization options. Whether products need to be manufactured as a single component or installed across an entire network of pipes and containers. Fanovo can provide the customization necessary to keep up with technological developments and innovations, providing solutions for a wide range of industries and applications.
Trade Assurance in Alibaba: http://www.fanovogroup.com/