What Is Tempered Glass
Tempered glass, also known as tempered safety glass, is defined as glass that is heat treated to be up to four times stronger and more durable than standard annealed glass. Another name for this type of glass is "toughened glass". The thermal process that cures tempered glass makes it heat-resistant. It breaks into small, safe pieces, rather than large shards, making it an ideal choice for many DIY projects and where standard glass could pose a danger.
At Dulles Glass & Mirror, we have perfected the process for hand-crafting your tempered glass pieces. The first thing you should know is that your tempered glass is cut to size. In fact, we cut, polish, and finish your glass to your specifications before we temper it. Cutting tempered glass after tempering is not recommended. After your glass is cut, we put it in our own tempering ovens, so we know how your glass is treated from start to finish. After your glass comes out of our tempering ovens, we finish it with a high-pressure cooling treatment to complete the process. Federal regulations state that tempered glass must have a surface compression of 10,000 psi or more. It usually breaks at around 24,000 psi.
Here are a few fast facts about tempered glass:
- You can customize the size, shape, thickness, and edge types of your glass.
- You can also choose bronze or gray tempered glass when you are customizing your glass.
- You can choose to get your glass with or without a tempering stamp (a stamp that authenticates that your glass was tempered.
