Different types of Safety Glass

There are several different types of safety glass, but mostly in today's industry, the words safety glass are going to refer to either laminated glass or tempered glass. I'll explain the differences below. We offer both types of glass, there are up's and down's to both sides.

Laminated we can cut on site and have to you rather quickly. However it tends to be more expensive and less durable.

Tempered glass needs to be run through a very hot oven which only large manufacturing facilities run. This means it takes a little bit longer to get, but it's much stronger and tends to be on the less expensive side.

Laminated safety glass

We stock three thicknesses of laminated safety glass. 1/8", 1/4", and 3/8". Laminated safety glass is the same type of glass that is in the windshield of your car. Have you ever had a broken windshield? Did you notice that it didn't shatter or break apart, but rather it all stayed together? That's the idea behind laminated.

Essentially it's two pieces of glass glued together by a thini piece of plastic in between them. This allows for everything to stick together. Here's an example:

Laminated glass covers the law pertaining to any door or window that needs to have safety glass. The only downside of laminated is that it's not as durable as tempered glass.

Tempered safety glass

Tempered glass is the stuff used in the side and back windows of your car, fishtank, shower doors, patio doors, or any door for that matter. This glass don't break, it blows up into a million tiny pieces.

Even though you wouldn't know it, most of what you see in commercial buildings such as those fancy handrails, elevators, skylights, or even the glass door you walked through, are all tempered.

There are actually several reasons for this, one is the law requires most of that stuff to be tempered, and second is tempered glass is far more durable than just regular glass, or laminated safety glass.