Water-soluble glass as corrosion protector in dishwashing machines

1. A process for manufacturing a transparent shaped body, said process comprising manufacturing a shaped body in a continuous glass process, said shaped body comprising a zinc-containing, water-soluble glass composition comprising from 43 to 54 mole % of P 2 O 5 , 10 to 30 mole % of alkali metal oxides, up to 5 mole % of SO 3 , and up to 25 mole % of ZnO, and at least one oxide of antimony or arsenic wherein the total amount of such oxides are present in the composition in an amount of less than 5 mole %, wherein the composition delivers a corrosion inhibiting effective amount of ZnO to glassware during an automatic dishwashing process and wherein not more than 40 mole % of the total amount of alkali metal oxides in the composition is constituted by one or more members of the group consisting of Li 2 O and Na 2 O.

2. The process according to claim 1 wherein the composition additionally comprises at least one alkaline-earth oxide with a total amount of alkaline-earth oxides of less than 20 mole %.

3. The process according to claim 1 wherein the composition additionally comprises at least one oxide of an element from the group consisting of silicon, germanium, tin and lead wherein the total amount of such oxides of less than 10 mole %.

4. The process according to claim 1 wherein the composition additionally comprises at least one oxide of an element selected from the group consisting of aluminium and boron wherein the total amount of such oxides are present in the composition in an amount of from 0.1 to 10 mole %.

5. The process according to claim 1 wherein the composition does not comprise more than 0.5 mole % of oxides of elements from the group consisting of: Sc, Y, La, Ac, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm, Bk, Cf, Es, Fm, Md, No and Lr.

6. The process according to claim 1 wherein the composition comprises from 43 to 54 mole % of P 2 O 5 , 10 to 30 mole % of alkali metal oxides, up to 5 mole % of SO 3 , up to 25 mole % of ZnO, less than 5 mole % alkaline-earth oxides, and from 0.3 to 3 mole % of oxides of elements selected from the group consisting of silicon, aluminium and boron.

7. The process according to claim 1 wherein the continuous glass process is a casting process.

8. The process according to claim 1 wherein the continuous glass process is a pressing process.

9. The process according to claim 1 wherein the continuous glass process is a blowing process.