Tempered glass is the most common glass found in storefront doors and windows and is produced by heating and cooling annealed glass in a controled enviroment. By controlling
the heating and cooling, over multiple intervals, process the centre of the glass will remain soft while the exterior portion of the annealed glass cools down quicker. After the tempering
process is finish the annealed glass becomes tempered glass. This tempered glass is now a type of saftey glass and is one of the safest and strongest types in the glass industry.
The price for tempered glass is a little more than annealed or laminated; however, it is safer and about 4 times stronger.
Safety Reference
Tempered glass is safe to use anywhere state and local city requirements call for saftey glass to be installed. When tempered glass breaks it shatters into very small little pieces of glass and most of the time these little glass pieces are no more than 1/8" square.
Most insualted glass units will have tempered glass installed if code requirements call of saftey glass. Tempered insulated units are two pieces of tempered glass plates separated with an aluminum spacer, 99.9% of the time it's a milled finish space.
Plate Sizes "Depths"
The two most common tempered glass plates depths is 1/8" and 1/4". 1/8" is typical for residential homes and apartments and 1/4" is typical for commercial storefronts, shops, retail & malls, convenient stores, post offices.
Tempered Glass Usage
- Storefront Doors
- Windows With-In Three Feet Of A Door Swing "For Both Residential And Commercial"
- Storefront Sidelites That Are Closest To Storefront Doors
- Home Windows Next To Doors
- Cabinet Shelves
- Cabinet Inserts
- Table Tops
- Solid Glass Doors
- Furniture