Today, you cannot consider a glass repair in Plainfield (or anywhere else) without considering the safety of the material. Safety glass is essential for all kinds of home installations, from patio pieces to shower doors. However, you may run into some confusion, as both tempered and laminated glass falls into this category.
Glass is Cooled When it is Made
To understand the differences, you need to know more about how the glass is made. The material is heated up, and after the manufacturing process takes place, the resulting glass is then cooled. When the glass is cooled, it becomes stronger. While laminated glass and tempered safety glass are both strong, they work in different ways.
An Energy-efficient Material
For instance, glass repair professionals state that laminated glass is manufactured with two or more panes of glass, each of which are joined with PVB, or a layer of plastic. The plastic, which can be either clear or tinted, is available in various sizes. Laminated glass is used in skylights because it screens out UV light, and is, therefore, an energy-efficient material. The lamination process also “soundproofs” the glass. When the glass breaks, it sticks to the plastic instead of falling into pieces on the floor, which means that there will be no dangerous shards strewn about.
Tempered Glass – A Resilient Glass
Windshield glass repair always makes use of laminated glass. The blue area at the top of the windshield, in fact, is the layer of plastic. Tempered glass, on the other hand, cools more quickly than other kinds of glass, which makes it the strongest material in this arena. This type of glass is about four times stronger than other types of glass of the same thickness and size.
Tempered safety glass is ideal for glass repair because it exhibits more tensile strength. Therefore, it can bend more easily without breaking. The glass is used in large windows, as it tends to demonstrate more wind-resistance than other glass materials.
Types of Glass
When tempered safety glass breaks, it lives up to its name, as it shatters into cubed pieces instead of dangerously sharp shards. You can find more information on glass products by researching various glass materials online. Glass is often represented by wired glass, tempered glass, laminated glass, and plexi-glass, just to name a few of the common offerings.
