What is Tempered Glass?

TEMPERED GLASS DEFINITION

Tempered glass, also known as safety glass among the people, is a type of glass that is more resistant to breakage. The fact that tempered glass will never break is false. Tempered glass can also break. The word temper denotes heat treatment. That is, tempered glass is heat treated glass.

The reason why tempered glass is called safe glass is that it does not cause injury when broken compared to conventional glass. Because, when these glasses are broken, they break into many more pieces, not in a pointed way, in a way that does not endanger human life. This makes it necessary to use the glasses used in places that will affect human life as tempered glass.

In tempered glass, the glass outer surface is produced with great tension. In normal glasses, the tension on the outer surface is 10,000 Psi, and in tempered ones, they are loaded with a voltage of 15,000 Psi. In this way, instead of large pieces on impact, they are broken into much smaller pieces.

HOW IS TEMPERED GLASS PRODUCTION?

In fact, the summary of tempered glass production is explained as a heat treatment of normally manufactured glass. This heat treatment is in the range of 650-700°C. Before the tempering heat treatment, the glass must be brought to its final shape. Because; Unfortunately, it cannot be cut or shaped again after tempering.

Before the tempering process, the glass is finalized into shape and a temperature in the range of 650-700°C is applied on it. After the glass is heated, a sudden cooling takes place. This cooling process is done by giving air from outside on the glass surface. The outer surface of the glass becomes fully solid relatively before and pulls the inner surface of the glass, which is softer and more fluid, towards itself. As a result of this event, a tensile stress is formed on the inner surface of the material. In other words, a tensile stress is given to the glass beforehand.

As a result of this process, in case of any breakage, instead of breaking into several pieces, the glass is divided into thousands of small pieces and the risk of injury is reduced. Because there will be no big and sharp edges as a result of breakage.

Tempered glass is about 5 times more durable than normal conventional glass. Tempered glasses show much better resistance not only to mechanical stresses but also to thermal expansions than conventional glasses.

WHERE ARE TEMPERED GLASS USED?

In Automobile Front and Rear Glasses (In terms of preventing injury in case of accident),

Bus Side Windows,

In Glasses Contacting High Temperature (oven etc.),

In Glass Cladding Process of High Buildings,

In some Furniture (Tables with glass parts, etc.),

The reason why tempered glass is not used in automobile side windows is that in case of an accident, it is necessary to escape from the vehicle suddenly and the doors cannot be opened, so that the glass can be easily broken and quickly escaped from the vehicle.