Different types of Glass used in Automobiles

Glass has various applications deepening on the requirements of the area or the object. The glass used in automobiles vastly differs from the regular home windows. A car’s windshield is manufactured with exhaustive tests and technologies to render it suitable for harsh conditions. Auto glass, especially the windshield gives structural support to the roof of the car apart from protection against the exteriors.

You must have noticed that a car window doesn’t shatter into harmful shards like a home window. Latest technologies are used to make the glass shatter into harmless pieces in case it breaks. Read on to find out about the 2 types of glass used for automobiles:

Laminated Glass

Laminated glass has been used for almost a century since the 1920s. It is simply two sheets of glass that are stuck together with a layer of plastic known as poly-vinyl buytrl (PVB), kind of like a sandwich. These layers are infused together using high temperatures. The glass is manufactured to provide maximum strength and it doesn’t shatter in case of an accident. While it may break upon impact, the PVB layer keeps the glass intact and sharp pieces of glass don’t fly around during an accident that may add to the injury. During head-on collisions, when a passenger might be thrown towards the windshield, laminated glass acts as a cushion. It is usually used for the front and rear windshield of the car.

When rocks or pebbles hit the windshield, they damage the exterior layer of the glass which makes windshield repair possible. Simply search windshield repair near me on Google and you can drive down to the nearest center to get it repaired. While laminated glass is mostly applied in automobiles, it has found its way into shops and offices as well.

Tempered Glass

Tempered glass is used for the side windows in the car. Curved glass is heated to high temperatures and suddenly cooled to create tempered glass. This process renders it 10 times stronger than regular glass. In an event where the glass is hit with something, it shatters into small dull-edged pebble-like pieces instead of shards that may harm the passengers. Tempered glass, unlike laminated glass, cannot be repaired in an accident since it breaks entirely. And since it cannot provide the cushion like laminated glass, it is not used for the windshields.

Just like laminated glass, tempered glass has found uses beyond the automobile industry. Tempered glass is perfect for glass used to cook or to make phone screens.