What is Toughened (Tempered) Glass?

What is Toughened (Tempered) Glass?

May 7, 2019 Glasses 0

Toughened or Tempered glass can be a shatterproof style of glass that is processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase strength compared to Normal glass. Toughened puts the outer surfaces into compression and therefore the interior into tension. Such stresses cause the glass, once broken, to crumble into little granular chunks rather than breakage into jagged shards as flat solid does. The granular chunks are less possible to cause injury.

 

As a results of its safety and strength, tempered glass is employed in an exceedingly kind of rigorous applications, as well as rider vehicle windows, shower doors, branch of knowledge glass doors and tables, white goods

Trays, mobile screen protectors, as an element of bulletproof glass, for diving masks, and varied varieties of plates and kitchen utensil.  

Advantages

  • Toughened(Tempered) glass is four to five times stronger than normal glass of the same size and impact thickness.
  • The glass temperature is higher and can withstand high temperature changes up to 250 ° C
  • Toughened glass is a safety glass. It’s hard to break and disintegrates into small, relatively harmless globules even in the event of a breakage.
  • Toughened does not change the basic properties of glass such as normal glass ‘ light transmission and solar radiant heat properties.
  • After heat treatment, the glass surface has the same surface damage resistance as annealed glass. It is impossible to cut or alter toughened glass.

Disadvantages

Before Toughened (tempering), toughened glass must be cut to size or pressed to shape, and once tempered, it cannot be reworked. Before the tempering process begins, the edges are polished or the holes in the glass are drilled. Due to the balanced stresses in the glass, damage to any portion will eventually result in the shattering of the glass into pieces of thumbnail size. The glass is most likely to break due to damage to the edge of the glass, where the tensile stress is the greatest, but shattering can also occur in the event of a severe impact in the middle of the glass panel or when the impact is concentrated (such as striking the glass with a hard point).

In some situations, the use of tempered glass can pose a safety risk due to the tendency of the glass to shatter completely on a hard impact instead of leaving shards in the window frame.

 

The toughened glass surface, if formed using this process, exhibits surface waves caused by contact with flattening rollers. This waviness is a major problem in the manufacture of solar cells with thin film. The float glass process can be used as an alternative for various glazing applications to provide low distortion sheets with very flat and parallel surfaces.

Manufacturing

A thermal tempering process can be used to make toughened glass from normal glass. The glass is placed on a roller table, taking it through a furnace heating it well above its 564 ° C (1.047 ° F) transition temperature to about 620 ° C (1.148 ° F). The glass is then quickly cooled with forced air drafts while for a short time the inner portion remains free to flow.

An alternative chemical toughening process involves forcing a glass surface layer with a thickness of at least 0.1 mm into compression by exchanging sodium ions on the glass surface with potassium ions (which is 30% larger) by immersing the glass in a bath of molten potassium nitrate. Chemical toughening results in higher toughness compared to thermal toughened and can be applied to complex shaped glass objects.

Uses of Toughened Glass

Toughened glass is used when important considerations are strength, thermal resistance and safety. For example:-

  • Balcony Area
  • Building Area
  • Vehicles
  • Bathroom Area
  • Swimming pool
  • Exhibition areas and display
  • Cooking and Baking
  • Household Use

 

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