Hello,
I honestly can’t believe its April already! Yet again my aim isn’t to bore anyone but today’s blog is about a little adventure Mark (customer relations manager) and I had when we visited one of our supplier’s factories.
Early one morning we set off on our adventure, traveling 35 minutes to one of our large suppliers, the reason, I was going to learn more about glass. Occasionally companies demand the glass shortly after making an order, not realising the complex processes going on behind the scenes and how time consuming it can be.
For example, above is a graphic outlining each stage of the toughening process that Float Glass goes through before it becomes toughened glass.
Firstly, Float Glass is placed onto a roller table which leads to a furnace; temperatures inside the furnace can reach over 650 degrees Celsius. The heated glass then goes through a quenching cycle, cooling the glass rapidly by blasting cold air through ducts onto its surface while the glass is moved at speed on a roller table.(If the glass breaks at this stage you have to start the process all over again).
Like many others before me on seeing such a complex process of toughening glass I realised just how long it could potentially take to do a bulk order of glass. The glass looks all but the same when it comes through the toughening process so why do we toughen glass?
The main reasons to use toughened glass are:
- Toughened glass, when broken, shatters into cube-shaped particles. It therefore qualifies as a safety glazing material.
- Toughened glass offers greater strength against impact compared to annealed glass, and thus, better resistance to the force of wind. It is more effective if placed within a well-designed, overall glazing system.
- When tempered glass does break, it shatters into small cubes, reducing the likelihood of serious deep cut injury. Toughening increases panes edge strength. Thus toughened glass is sometime specified when designers anticipate high thermal stresses.
So by toughening glass we make it stronger and safer!
I enjoyed my day at the factory and it did teach me a lot about the manufacturing process in a short space of time. Some of the machinery they had was amazing, who would have thought you cut glass in water?
I fully understand now why when people come to buy windows from Waller Glazing Services; they want to buy quality glass from a company they trust, your safety is paramount to us and the quality of our glazing products and glazing services reflects our ethics. If you ever need any advice on glazing or would like a quote, supply or repair of new or existing windows please do not hesitate to contact us!
Waller Glazing Services
Contact us on – 01795 424435
Email- samantha@wallerservices.com
