If your business is still using annealed glass, it's time to upgrade. When most people think of glass, annealed glass is the type that usually comes to mind. It's easily breakable and splinters into sharp shards. Not only are the shards dangerous, but annealed glass does nothing to deter criminals. Upgrading the glass in your business will keep your employees, customers, and property safe. Here's what you need to know about the two other types of glass used in construction.
Tempered Glass Breaks Into Harmless Granules Instead of Shards
Often referred to as safety glass, tempered glass is baked at high heat and then rapidly cooled by high-pressure air jets in order to strengthen it. The process makes tempered glass about four times stronger than annealed glass. When a pane of tempered glass breaks, the glass forms into small granules with rounded edges. This keeps your customers and employees safe from the sharp glass shards of annealed glass.
While stronger than regular glass, criminals using sledgehammers designed to break glass will easily smash through the pane. Its main strength is resisting accidental breakage and preventing anyone from being hurt from the resulting shards of glass. Because of the danger that annealed glass shards pose to customers and employees, it's recommended that all glass in your building be tempered and not annealed.
Laminated Glass Is Unbreakable and Resists Extreme Impact
This type of glass is made by layering two or more panes of glass and placing plastic polymer sheets between the panes. The glass is then baked in an oven to bind the plastic polymers to the glass, creating a contiguous pane. The polymers keep the glass together and prevent it from breaking.
Used to make both hurricane-resistant and bulletproof windows, laminate glass is very resistant to impact. Layering more panes of glass together with plastic polymers increases the strength of the glass, but it comes at a cost – the more plastic polymers that are used to construct the glass, the more opaque the resulting pane of glass will be. Because of this, most businesses preserve the transparency of glass by using laminate glass with only a single plastic polymer layer.
Even the least secure pane of laminated glass is adequate for most purposes, as it requires power tools and a significant amount of time to cut through. The noise and time required deter most burglars from even attempting to defeat laminated glass. This makes it a good option for storefront windows, glass entry doors, and high-security display cases.
One downside of laminated glass is that it can be difficult to fit in existing window frames due to the thickness. If you need high-security glass for a storefront window, you may need to slightly deepen your window frames in order for the pane of glass to fit.
If you still have annealed glass in your business, you should upgrade to tempered glass as soon as possible. The sharp glass shards formed when annealed glass breaks can cause serious injury to customers or employees. For any glass that's being used to prevent entry or theft, upgrade to laminated glass to deter criminals. A company that focuses on commercial glass services can help you replace all of your old annealed glass with new, safer types of glass.
Share6 July 2018
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