Safety glass
En
Ordinary glass is a unique material that is widely used in architecture and design, in everyday life and in production. Its most serious drawback is its fragility, and the larger the sheet of glass, the more damage the fragments can cause. Safety glass does not have this drawback, since when broken, small pieces are formed that do not have sharp edges, and ideally, the glass sheet is covered with a network of cracks, but does not crumble.
The easiest way to make glass safe is through tempering, where a sheet of glass is heated to a temperature of about 800°C and then quickly cooled. As a result, the mechanical properties change - strength and heat resistance; residual stresses appear in the structure, which contribute to the formation of small fragments.
In addition to increased impact strength, tempering gives the glass resistance to temperature changes, which is important when glazing facades. Transparency remains unchanged, so it is impossible to visually distinguish intact tempered glass from regular glass.
Tempered glass has been around for a long time, but there are more modern ways to make glass safe. One of them is lamination, when a film coating gives the glass strength and serves to fix the fragments. By using films with special physical properties, glass can be made not only safe, but also protective.
Triplex glassis formed by gluing together several layers of glass, while special adhesives increase strength and give the structure other interesting properties, such as noise absorption or impact resistance. Visually, triplex does not differ from ordinary glass, but it can be safely used for the production of furniture, internal partitions and doors.