Precision black glass balls are used in aircraft slip and turn indicators and other aircraft instrumentation. Black glass balls are also used in flowmeters for many industries including chemical processing and medical. Rotameters are a particular kind of flowmeter, based on the variable area principle. Precision balls provide a simple, precise and economical means of indicating flow rates in fluid systems. In rotameters, black glass balls are used as floats or sight indicators. Standard black glass balls have a density of 0.0914 lb/in3. Many other common rotameter floats are also available from ITI including orange glass balls, stainless steel balls, tantalum balls, tungsten carbide balls, ruby sapphire balls etc.
When polished, both soda lime glass balls and borosilicate glass balls provide an extremely good seal making glass balls ideal for check valves in food processing, pharmaceutical, and photographic processing equipment. Glass balls are used in fiber optics applications because they can be made optically clear.