Car windshields and windows aren’t made from ordinary glass since they’re prone to breakage and causing serious injuries in case of accidents. Instead, cars use safety glass, which is made with processed designs. It reduces the chances of glass breaking into pieces, which is especially helpful in the event of a crash.

Safety glass is one of the basic requirements for car manufacturers these days. To reduce the impact of an accident, automobile manufacturers mainly use two types of glasses for their vehicles: laminated glass and tempered glass.

What is Laminated Glass?

Laminated glass is installed on the front windshield of cars to protect the passengers in a head-on collision. It’s created with a pair of glass sheets stuck together using a layer of resin in between them at high temperatures. The resin used is called polyvinyl butyral (PVB), which ensures the strong bonding of the glasses.

The materials and processes used to manufacture laminated glass make it a robust shield to resist impacts and an ideal glass to install on the front windshield of cars. During a car crash, laminated glass won’t shatter into pieces, saving the passengers from sharp glass pieces that’d fly towards them with ordinary glass.

Due to its robust nature, laminated glass is used in several other things, such as floors, glass roofs, aquariums, and more.

What is Tempered Glass?

Tempered glass is known to be four times as strong as ordinary glass. It’s created using a single sheet of ply glass, which goes through the process of ‘quenching’, in which the glass is heated to extreme temperatures and immediately made to cool rapidly.

Unlike laminated glass, which usually resists breakage after an impact, the tempered glass breaks into thousands of small pieces with dull edges, eliminating the danger posed to passengers due to big glass pieces with sharp edges.

Difference Between Laminated & Tempered Glass

Due to different processes used in their designs, laminated and tempered glasses have several differences.

  1. Tempered glass has higher resistivity to breakage load, making it stronger than laminated glass. Laminated glass cracks easily compared to tempered glass, but it can be easily repaired. On the other hand, if your car’s tempered glass breaks, you’d have to replace it in its entirety.
  2. Laminated glass acts as a great shield to block UV rays. Compared to tempered glass, which only blocks 60% of the UV rays, laminated glass blocks about 99% of the UV rays.
  3. Laminated glass is quite expensive compared to tempered glass. Laminated glass will generally cost you about 3–4 times the cost of tempered glass.
  4. By law, car manufacturers can’t use anything other than laminated glass for the front windshield. However, for side mirrors and windows, you can choose either tempered glass or laminated glass.

Car window repair in Edmonton

Whatever you choose, rest assured that it’ll provide you with maximum safety. Crystal Glass is a commercial glass repair service provider that provides services like windshield replacement in Calgary. To get in touch with us, give us a call at 310-4527 or e-mail us at: chip@crystalglass.ca.