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Tempered glass

planX

Is tempered glass the same thing as safety glass?
Please explain

 
Aug 28, 06 4:39 pm
el jeffe

tempered is a type of glass, one a several that meet the criteria for safety glazing. (assuming IBC).

Aug 28, 06 4:43 pm  · 
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el jeffe

one 'of' several

Aug 28, 06 4:44 pm  · 
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some person

You may also want to research the difference between laminated safety glass and tempered glass. (One is allowed in glass elevator shafts, one isn't.)

Aug 28, 06 9:27 pm  · 
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opaquebond

tempered glass is heated and cooled in specific ways to increase it's strength but can still shatter if struck.safety glass is usually made of layers of glass (i think usually tempered) and different kinds of laminates. safety glass is used for windows-n-stuff. tempered glass is often used for cooking etc...due to it's ability to withstand quick temp. changes.

Aug 29, 06 9:10 pm  · 
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postal

hyperdraw... tempered glass is commonly refered to as 'safety glass'... It's the original safety glass. Laminates came later.

...and i can't believe nobody has said this... but tempered glass breaks differently... that's why it's safe... it breaks into a bunch of tiny pieces instead of large vicious guillotine like shards...

sorry for the dramatic effect

Aug 29, 06 9:29 pm  · 
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planX

Thanks everyone.

Aug 30, 06 10:06 am  · 
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mdler

Glass has the same compressive strength as concrete (more or less). Tempering is the quick cooling of the glass during the manufacturing process (the hot glass is rolled out on a flat slab of steel with many small holes in it through which cold air is blown). When the glass cools in this way, the outer skin of glass is forced into compression, compressing all of the other glass within.

Tempered glass is very strong, but if this outer layer of glass 'film' is broken, the compressive forces within the glass will shatter the glass into many tiny fragments. This is one of the reasons that the windshield glass of your car is tempered; it is strong, but can shatter easily if struck with a focused point load.

Laminated glass is a type of glass that uses plastic films adheared to different layers of glass. Many times, laminated glass is also tempered. The idea behind this being that the tempering makes the glass stronger, but in the event of failure, the glass fragments will stay together (because they are 'glued' to the plastic film)

Aug 30, 06 12:33 pm  · 
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planX

Absolutely beautiful! thanks mdler

Aug 30, 06 12:37 pm  · 
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mdler

I used to blow glass...

One day I asked my instructor to explain the idea of tempering to me. He took some glass out of the glass furnace and dropped it into a bucket of cold water (which essentially is the same idea of tempering)

From the bucket he pulled out what looked like a glass tadpole od sperm

He had me take a hammer and hit the large 'body' of the tadpole. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the glass to shatter (because of the compressive strength of the glass). He then told me to snap off the tail of the 'tadpole'. As I did this, the tadpole shattered into a bunch of glass dust.

It was pretty sweet

Aug 30, 06 12:45 pm  · 
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planX

Wow

Aug 30, 06 12:53 pm  · 
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