Glass has become a massive addition to our daily lives. No matter where we go, we are always covered around things with some glass or the other. But not all glass fits daily physical use as it can break a single move of the human hand.
That’s why glass is majorly used in commercial and residential spaces, such as indoors, showers, microwaves, windows, etc. This type of glass is fit for daily wear and tear as it has been appropriately tampered with. This tempered glass is solid and consists of versatile characteristics.
In case you did not know, tempered glass is four times stronger than typical glass. But why is it so? This is because of how it is manufactured. The annealing process, which is the stage where glass is slowly cooled down, is much slower compared to how glass is commonly manufactured. This also makes tempered glass safer.
At an approximate, the tempered glass is four times more muscular than the regular piece of glass. The thing about tempered glass that makes it so fit for use in our daily life is that it just doesn’t crack. If it does shatter due to facing a big enough blow to it, it will break into small harmless granules instead of tiny sharp shards that can pierce through your skin.
How is tempered glass prepared?
Such a massive amount of services that tempered glass can be used for, but you might think, how does regular glass become such a hard substance that is even used as safety gear. Well, don’t stress too much about it as we are here to help you out on this. Below is its preparation technique which might help you in understanding what makes tempered glass.
1. Prerequisite Preparation
To start making the regular glass a tempered one, it has to be first into a size required for a specific job. Cutting glass in the desired size would also ensure the glass’ integrity is kept intact, and hence, the glass has to be cut into a piece before the whole process starts.
Having the wrong size of glass piece will increase its chances of breaking during the tempering process. This loss will decrease the efficiency of the tempering process. For this reason, the glass is also examined for the remaining imperfections before advancing the tempering process.
The sharp edges are then removed from the cut piece of the glass using an abrasive, such as sandpaper. Then the glass is washed as the last preparatory process.
2. Heat Treatment
After getting washed and prepped, the glass piece is sent to a large-sized oven. More precisely, the glass piece is sent through the huge tempering oven. This oven is not the most fun place for anyone to visit as its temperature is nothing less than that of a volcanic tube, and hence, protective gear is highly preferred while working around it.
This gigantic “oven” heats the glass piece by increasing its temperature up to and over about 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit. Hence, as said before, the temperature of the things inside this oven is no less than that of lava found inside volcanic tubes.
3. Quenching
After getting out of the gigantic oven as nearly being of the same temperature as that of lava, the glass is then cooled in a matter of seconds. Cooling lava hot glass in a matter is done with the help of high-pressure cooling procedures that are termed “quenching”.
In this process, the hot glass is introduced to high-pressure hair that makes the outer surface cool way faster than its inner surface. This decrease in temperature on its outer side allows its movers to handle it a little bit without getting burned. After the core of hot lava glass cools off, it starts pulling its sides onto its middle, similar to the process of compression.
Due to the glass getting tightly packed by itself, it achieves a more compact form. The compression of a traditional glass piece makes it a tempered glass piece about 4 times stronger than it.
What is tempered glass used for?
As tempered glass is so durable and robust, it can handle significant workloads. Tempered glasses are used for many things in our everyday life. Some of the most common things in which tempered glass is used are as below.
- Mobile and laptop screens: Laptop screen and mobile screens are pretty intense because they are made from durable and light tempered glass that can handle daily wear and tear and keep the screen scratch-free.
- Kitchen appliances: Though the competition between tempered glass vs borosilicate glass is always there in the market, tempered glass is quite a good option for kitchen appliances.
- Automobile parts: Whether it is your car, bike, helmet, or any other glassy thing in your automobile, it will most probably be made up of tempered glass. Tempered glass is helpful in automobiles as it provides extra protection to the vehicle user and their co-sitters.
- Construction equipment: Construction equipment such as industrial glasses and glass of construction helmets are all tempered glass. Other than just these, the windows, glass facades, swimming pools, glass balconies, lifts, and sliding doors are also made up of tempered glass due to the user capabilities and durability that it provides.
- Solar Panels: The heat resistance that the tempered glass consists of is due to its thermal resistance. This heat resistance makes it optimum for use as the material for capturing light in solar panels.
- Railings: The glass railings in most public and commercial places are made out of tempered glass as it is robust enough to be used for long periods without getting torn down.
- Office dividers: Most office dividers are made from tempered glass because they are harder to break and safer when they do. As safety is a top priority, there is no wonder why many offices prefer to use tempered glass!
Wrap Up
Tempered glass has become a star of the glass industry in recent years due to all its benefits according to its market price. Tempered glass might also be the best option for you if you want to build anything of glass that requires durable enough for daily human usage.
Tempered glass is present in most of the appliances in your house, whether it be the glass of your mobile, laptop or the lid of your kitchen, such as glass jar, microwaves, frying pan, etc. Along with such uses, tempered glass is, surprisingly enough, also used for the tabletops of your kitchen as well as an office or any other type of furniture.
