Safety Glass
Toughened/Tempered Glass
Toughened glass, also known as tempered glass, is a type of safety glass that has been treated with heat to increase its strength compared to normal, or annealed, glass. This process involves heating the glass to a very high temperature and then cooling it rapidly, a process known as quenching. This puts the outer surfaces of the glass into compression and the interior into tension, which gives tempered glass its strength.
Tempered glass has several advantages over standard glass:
Increased Strength: Tempered glass is approximately four to five times stronger than standard glass, making it resistant to breakage under normal use and able to withstand extreme weather conditions and abrupt changes in temperature.
Safety: When tempered glass does break, it crumbles into small, granular chunks instead of shattering into jagged shards as plate glass (or annealed glass) does. These chunks are less likely to cause injury.
Thermal Resistance: Tempered glass has a higher resistance to thermal stresses than regular glass. This makes it suitable for applications such as oven windows, computer screens, or other situations where glass might be exposed to significant changes in temperature.
Scratch Resistance: Tempered glass is more resistant to scratches than normal glass. This makes it useful in situations where the glass could be subject to rough treatment, such as on a smartphone screen or in a high-traffic window or door.
Laminated Glass
Laminated glass is a type of safety glass that holds together when shattered. It consists of two or more layers of glass bonded together with an interlayer. The interlayer keeps the layers of glass bonded even when broken, and its high strength prevents the glass from breaking up into large, sharp pieces.
Advantages of using laminated glass:
Safety: The primary advantage of laminated glass is its safety aspect. If it is broken, the glass pieces remain stuck to the interlayer, minimising the risk of injury from sharp edges.
Sound Reduction: The interlayer in laminated glass can also serve as an effective sound barrier, reducing noise levels.
UV Protection: Laminated glass can block up to 99% of the UV radiation, thus reducing the fading of furnishings and fabrics behind the window.
Security: As laminated glass does not shatter into pieces when broken, it makes forced entry more difficult, providing an additional level of security.
Versatility: Laminated glass can be manufactured with a variety of interlayer thicknesses and colours, and it can be cut, drilled, and fabricated like regular float glass.
Durability: Laminated glass is highly durable and maintains its colour stability and other properties over time.
Energy Efficiency: Laminated glass can be used in combination with other energy-efficient glazing technologies, such as low-emissivity (Low-E) coatings, to improve the thermal performance of windows and other building envelope components, thus reducing heating and cooling costs.
Wired Glass
Wired glass is a type of glass into which a wire mesh is embedded during production. Traditionally, it was made by feeding a steel wire mesh into the molten glass during the manufacturing process. The final product is a fully integrated wired glass piece that has the ability to resist shattering or breaking into sharp pieces upon impact.
Advantages of using wired glass:
Fire Resistance: One of the main advantages of wired glass is its resistance to fire. The wire mesh helps to prevent the glass from shattering under the high heat of a fire. It can help slow the spread of flames and smoke through a building, providing valuable time for people to escape.
Safety: The wire mesh embedded in the glass prevents it from breaking into large, sharp pieces, which could cause serious injury. Instead, when the glass breaks, it tends to stay in place or break into smaller, less dangerous fragments.
Security: Wired glass can provide an additional level of security, as it is more difficult to break than regular glass. Even if the glass is broken, the wire mesh remains intact, making it difficult to create a large enough opening to pass through.
Bulletproof Glass
Bulletproof glass is typically made through the process of lamination. It involves sandwiching layers of glass with layers of plastic, typically polyvinyl butyral (PVB) or ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA). Sometimes polycarbonate or other strong plastics are used in the layers as well. When a bullet hits this type of glass, the energy is absorbed and dispersed over a larger area, preventing the bullet from penetrating through the glass.
The thickness and number of layers in the bulletproof glass will typically depend on how much protection is needed. For instance, the glass used in a convenience store might only need to stop bullets from a small caliber handgun, whereas the glass used in a bank or a high-risk government building might need to stop bullets from a high-powered rifle.