Visions (cookware)

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Visions is a brand of transparent stove top cookware created by Corning France and introduced to Europe during the late 1970s. In 1983, it was introduced in the United States and became the number one selling cookware set for a number of years. Visions is made of a transparent material belonging to the Pyroceram family of glass-ceramics. It is one of the few cookware lines that can be used on the range (gas and electric), in the oven (conventional, convection, and microwave), and under a broiler. It will withstand heat up to 850 °C (1,560 °F) with thermal traits similar to Corning Ware plus improved resistance to staining and the detrimental effects of acids and detergents. [1] [2] Visions is sold worldwide by Instant Brands.

Contents

History

In 1953 S. Donald Stookey of the Corning Research and Development Division discovered Pyroceram, an opaque-white glass-ceramic material with a high thermal shock resistance. Included in his subsequent patents were references to a transparent variation of this material, as well. While Pyroceram went on to be used for a variety of products, including Corning Ware cookware, the transparent version was also heavily studied for potential use as cookware over the next two decades.

In 1963 George Beall, working under Stookey, explored a method for making the transparent cookware. [3] However, by 1966, Corning decided against commercializing it for fear that it would cannibalize Pyrex sales. [4]

In 1977, Andre Andrieu and Serge Renault, working for Corning France, patented the claim that would form the basis for amber-tinted, transparent Vision cookware. It was produced in France and released for the European market in 1979 to instant success.

Corning Le CLAIR (VISION) 2.5L Stewpot Corning LeCLAIR (VISION) 2.5L Stewpot.jpg
Corning Le CLAIR (VISION) 2.5L Stewpot

In 1981, Corning Glass Works began test marketing the cookware in the United States as an imported product under the name “Le CLAIR” rather than VISION due to a trademark conflict over the name. Once the trademark obstacles were overcome, the product finally received an official rollout in the second half of 1983 under the name “VISIONS”. [5]

Sales spiked during the mid-1980s when Corning released a series of television commercials showing a traditional piece of metal cookware being melted inside a transparent Visions pot, touting the product line as withstanding heat that will "turn ordinary sauce pans into sauce." [6] It would become the number one selling cookware set for the next several years. [7] Due to increased demand, Corning opened additional production lines in the US and Brazil. [4]

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Corning released additional Visions products lines including limited "Sculptured" versions for high-end dept stores, non-stick versions featuring a Silverstone coating, and additional colors. [8]

Sales declined in the US over the 1990s and early 2000s and the product line is now sold at higher end price points via "CorningWare, Corelle, & More" outlet stores and Corelle Brands websites. [4] Visions has remained popular overseas, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where custom product lines have been created specifically for that market.

Typically seen in an amber tint, a cranberry colored version was available from 1992 until 2004. A white variation was available in Europe as "White Vision" and in the US in limited supply under the name "Pyromax". Visions was temporarily unavailable in the United States from 2004 until 2006 but has otherwise been produced non-stop for nearly 40 years and is currently sold worldwide by Instant Brands (formerly Corelle Brands, LLC).

Transparent Pyroceram

Visions cookware is made of a transparent, beta-quartz material belonging to the Pyroceram family of glass-ceramics. Transparent Pyroceram was briefly given the name "Calexium" in European marketing materials during the early 1980s. However since then, and in other regions such as the USA, the term "Pyroceram" has been used exclusively. This material and a method of making it was first referenced in a patent filed by S. Donald Stookey, of the Corning Research and Development Division, in 1958. It was described as being a semi-crystalline ceramic having unique and useful properties such as coefficient of thermal expansion so low as to be negative in character, a true porosity of zero, and the unusual characteristic of being transparent despite a substantial crystal content (often greater than 75% by volume). [9] In a further patent, filed in 1976, Kenneth Chyung described it as an ideal material for cookware and kitchen materials and "unquestionably better" in the areas of infra-red transmittance, stain resistance, and chemical durability than two existing Pyroceramic glasses used for Corning Ware and "The Counter That Cooks". [2]

Thanks to Pyroceram's extremely high thermal shock resistance, food can be stored in the freezer in a piece of Visions and immediately taken to the stovetop or oven for cooking. Since the material is completely non-porous, it will never harbor food odors or leach chemicals into meals. Additionally, it is completely dishwasher safe and is not prone to haze or etching typically experienced with normal glass kitchenware.

When initially released in Europe, and during the Le CLAIR test marketing period in the US, many Visions products shipped with a "Cooking Lid" that was also made of Pyroceram. These lids could be flipped over and used as a skillet or baking pan. However, upon official introduction in the US, releases under the Visions brand made use of knob-style glass lids made of Pyrex. Glass lids are now standard worldwide.

Corelle Brands (and later, Instant Brands) sells similar functioning cookware under the CorningWare StoveTop brand name. These products are made of opaque Pyroceram ceramic-glass, like vintage pieces of Corning Ware, and can be used in the similar ways as Visions cookware. They are currently manufactured in France by the same factory that produces Visions.

Pyrex, a brand name for break-resistant glass bakeware, has offered complementary brown (Fireside) and Cranberry tinted lines to match Visions colorways in the past. Care must be made to distinguish between Visions and bakeware marketed under the Pyrex brand name, as the thermal properties of each product are quite different.

The transparent version of Pyroceram used to make Visions is also used in other products such as ceramic-glass top stoves and fireplace doors. [10] [11]

Arc International, France, sells cookware that is equivalent to Visions under various brand names including Arcoflam, Luminarc, and Arcoroc. An amber version of their Octime line of glass-ceramic casseroles were rebadged as Visions Octime cookware in the USA during 2010-2011. Since that time, some of Arc's other vitroceramic cookware has also been sold under the Visions brand name, as well.

Related Research Articles

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A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, and brick.

Glass-ceramics are polycrystalline materials produced through controlled crystallization of base glass, producing a fine uniform dispersion of crystals throughout the bulk material. Crystallization is accomplished by subjecting suitable glasses to a carefully regulated heat treatment schedule, resulting in the nucleation and growth of crystal phases. In many cases, the crystallization process can proceed to near completion, but in a small proportion of processes, the residual glass phase often remains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cookware and bakeware</span> Food preparation containers

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pyrex</span> Trademark for borosilicate glass

Pyrex is a brand introduced by Corning Inc. in 1915 for a line of clear, low-thermal-expansion borosilicate glass used for laboratory glassware and kitchenware. It was later expanded in the 1930s to include kitchenware products made of soda–lime glass and other materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corning Inc.</span> American glass and ceramics manufacturer

Corning Incorporated is an American multinational technology company that specializes in specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advanced optics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. The company was named Corning Glass Works until 1989. Corning divested its consumer product lines in 1998 by selling the Corning Consumer Products Company subsidiary to Borden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transparent ceramics</span> Ceramic materials that are optically transparent

Many ceramic materials, both glassy and crystalline, have found use as optically transparent materials in various forms from bulk solid-state components to high surface area forms such as thin films, coatings, and fibers. Such devices have found widespread use for various applications in the electro-optical field including: optical fibers for guided lightwave transmission, optical switches, laser amplifiers and lenses, hosts for solid-state lasers and optical window materials for gas lasers, and infrared (IR) heat seeking devices for missile guidance systems and IR night vision.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borosilicate glass</span> Glass made of silica and boron trioxide

Borosilicate glass is a type of glass with silica and boron trioxide as the main glass-forming constituents. Borosilicate glasses are known for having very low coefficients of thermal expansion, making them more resistant to thermal shock than any other common glass. Such glass is subjected to less thermal stress and can withstand temperature differentials without fracturing of about 165 °C (300 °F). It is commonly used for the construction of reagent bottles and flasks, as well as lighting, electronics, and cookware.

Vycor is the brand name of Corning's high-silica, high-temperature glass. It provides very high thermal shock resistance. Vycor is approximately 96% silica and 4% boron trioxide, but unlike pure fused silica, it can be readily manufactured in a variety of shapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CorningWare</span> Brand of dish and other cookware pieces

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Corelle Brands Kitchenware products maker and distributor

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corelle</span> Brand of glassware and dishware

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Revere Ware is a line of consumer and commercial kitchen wares introduced in 1939 by the Revere Brass & Copper Corp. The line focuses primarily on consumer cookware such as skillets, sauce pans, stock pots, and tea kettles. Initially Revere Ware was the culmination of various innovative techniques developed during the 1930s, the most popular being construction of stainless steel with rivetlessly attached bakelite handles, copper-clad bases and rounded interiors for ease of cleaning. Over the next 40+ years, Revere Ware would introduce new series to position itself in competition with other manufacturers at various price points, or for specific specialty markets. In the early 1960s the profitability of Revere Ware began to level off. Coinciding with new series introductions, cost-cutting measures were implemented in the manufacture of the traditional cookware. The bakelite handles were changed from two piece to one, and the thickness of utensil walls and copper cladding were reduced.

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Pyroceram is the original glass-ceramic material developed and trademarked by Corning Glass in the 1950s. Pyroceram is an opaque, white, glass material, commonly used in kitchenware, glass stove tops, wood stove doors, etc.. It has high heat tolerance and low thermal expansion.

Cer-vit is a family of glass-ceramic materials that were invented by Owens Illinois in the mid-1960s. Its principle ingredients are the oxides of lithium, aluminum and silicon. It is melted to form a glass which is then heat treated to nucleate and crystallize it into a material that is more than 90% microscopic crystals. Its formulation and heat treatment can be modified to produce a variety of material properties. One form is a material that is transparent and has a near zero thermal expansion. Its transparency is because the microscopic crystals are smaller than the wave length of light and are transparent, and its low thermal expansion is because they have a spodumene structure.

References

  1. ↑ "The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana on January 6, 1988 · Page 38". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
  2. 1 2 US 4018612,Chyung, Kenneth,"Transparent beta-quartz glass-ceramics",published 1977-04-19
  3. ↑ US 3252811 Beall, George, ”Glass-ceramic bodies and method of making them"
  4. 1 2 3 Davis Dyer, Daniel Gross (2001). The Generations of Corning: The Life and Times of a Global Corporation . USA: Oxford University Press. pp.  417. ISBN   978-0195140958.
  5. ↑ Kyle., Coroneos (2006). The complete guide to Corning ware & Visions cookware. Paducah, KY: Collector Books. ISBN   9781574324686. OCLC   61495500.
  6. ↑ John T. Folden (2017-07-20), 1980's Corning Europe early VISION Commercial: "Sauce Pan Sauce" , retrieved 2017-09-07
  7. ↑ "Marketing Gives Corning a Boost". The New York Times. 1988-04-02. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  8. ↑ "LeCLAIR.vision: VINTAGE VISIONS IDENTIFICATION GUIDE". leclair.vision. Retrieved 2018-08-19.
  9. ↑ US 3157522,Stookey, S. Donald,"Low expansion glass-ceramic and method of making it"
  10. ↑ "pyroceram, neoceram, tempered glass, woodstove glass, pyroceram glass price". woodstove-fireplaceglass.com. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  11. ↑ Beall, George H.; Pinckney, Linda R. (1999-01-01). "Nanophase Glass-Ceramics". Journal of the American Ceramic Society. 82 (1): 5–16. doi:10.1111/j.1151-2916.1999.tb01716.x. ISSN   1551-2916.
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