Once widely used, tin cans have largely been replaced with plastic and aluminum containers. Tin is used in the Pilkington process to produce window glass. In the Pilkington process, molten glass is poured onto a pool of molten tin. The glass floats on the surface of the tin and cools, forming solid glass with flat, parallel surfaces. Most of the window glass produced today is made this way.
Tin is used to form many useful alloys.
Bronze is an alloy of tin and copper . Tin and lead are alloyed to make pewter and solder. An alloy of tin and niobium is used to make superconductive wire. Type metal, fusible metal, bell metal and Babbitt metal are other examples of tin alloys. Tin salts can be sprayed onto glass to make electrically conductive coatings.