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Tempered glass is glass that has been through a thermal process that heats it up then cools it quickly. This toughens the glass and makes it shatter into small pieces instead of large jagged ones. This makes it a good safety glass for a variety of uses including in cars.
Laminated safety glass is glass that is actually made in layers. There are two layers of glass and one layer of vinyl, which is pressed together and heated in an autoclave. An autoclave is an oven. This glass shatters like tempered glass does, but since it has vinyl in the broken pieces usually stay in place adhering to the vinyl.
Without these two safety glasses cars would be much more dangerous to be in during accidents. For years auto glass was just regular glass. Many people got injured from flying broken glass in car accidents. This led for a call in stronger glass being used in the windshields. Then the windshields were made from a tempered glass. This was a bit better because the glass shattered but it could do so easily when hit with even a small rock. Henry Ford in 1919 was instrumental in bringing laminated safety glass to the USA from a process used in France.
Laminated safety glass has been used ever since in making car windshields. This has solved the problem of flying broken glass hitting a person's body. Can you imagine how much glass would fly at you if it was regular glass in a car accident? No wonder other glass is now used in cars.
Through using the tempered glass and laminated safety glass for auto glass today, we have drastically cut down on glass related injuries associated with car wrecks. If you notice any cracks in your windshield you should have it replaced. Cracks can just keep getting larger until you could have a leak or other problems with your windshield.
If your windows become chipped or cracked you need to look into replacing them too. You don't want to be driving down the road and have a problem with your windows. They could shatter or crack further if you don't replace them when they are damaged.
We just take certain thing for granted today. The auto glass is one such thing. How many times do you drive and you're not giving a second thought as to what type of glass you are looking through? If you are like me every time you get in the car you just drive off to your destination. After learning these few facts, you just might think next time how lucky you are that improvements have been made on the glass you look through in your car.
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