Tempered glass is a glass obtained by heating ordinary sheet glass to a quenching
temperature (650–680° C), followed by rapid uniform cooling with cold air on
both sides. As a result of this treatment, residual mechanical compressive
stresses are formed in the surface layers of the glass, ensuring its increased
mechanical strength, heat resistance, and safety during fracture. When broken,
such glass breaks down into many small fragments with blunt edges that are not
capable of causing serious injuries. A similar effect is proof of the high
resilience of such glass. The evenly distributed impact energy for a relatively
long time forms very small microcracks in the glass and allows to obtain small
fragments. Thus, tempered glass has three main useful properties, each of which
has its own meaning and application.
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| Triplex Tempered Glass |
Safety
and mechanical strength of tempered glass are used in the construction, ware,
shop windows, for the installation of fences, furniture, automotive and railway
industry. Such property as heat resistance allows glazing buildings without the
risk of thermal shock, especially for tinted glass. The only weak point of such
sheet glass is vulnerability to impacts in the butt end since at this point
residual stresses can easily break free and break the glass entirely. However,
this effect also finds its application, being used in the design (for example
three-layer tabletops or doors with the effect of “broken glass”).
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| Tempered Glass Application |
In the automotive industry,
tempered glass is used to make a side or rear auto glass. The use of tempered
glass as a windshield is prohibited (not sharp but small fragments can damage
the eyes of the driver or passengers). For the production of windshields use
triplex of unhardened silicate glass. Although triplexes made of tempered glass
are much stronger, they have an important drawback: the rapid and complete loss
of transparency due to cracking over the entire area from one strong blow.
This, however, does not prevent them from being used in architecture. On the
contrary, non-tempered triplex with cracks, for example, in a car, can even
continue to be used for some time before replacement.
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