Glass-making has been around a long time, for around 6,000 years humans have been making glass. Glass may have first been discovered in natural forms such as obsidian found at volcanoes and there are also cases where lightning striking the ground can produce a vein of natural glass in the sand.
These days, however, we’ve found many ways to manufacture glass. In the safety and security industry, there are many uses for tempered and impenetrable glass.
Tempered Glass
Tempered glass is also often referred to as safety glass and it’s become a staple for modern architectural design.
Tempered Glass Is Stronger Than Regular Glass
Tempered glass can be made up to 5 times stronger than regular glass making it an ideal placement for architects in the following kinds of areas:
- Balconies & balustrades
- Motor vehicle windows and windshields
- Windows of your home or business
- Presentation Boards
- Table tops
- Shower doors and screens
- Staircases
- Glass walls
Tempered Glass Is Safer Than Regular Glass
One of the reasons that tempered glass is not ballistic glass is because it is designed to break. Another reason is that bullets and other projectiles will go straight through it. Yes, tempered glass is made in such a way that when it breaks the shards that form is small and round.
Regular glass tends to break in such a way that large, dangerous shards are formed that can easily puncture and slice skin. Can you imagine if you were in a car accident and the glass in the car was not tempered? The resultant accident would result in flying razor-sharp knives.
What Does Tempered Mean?
The process of tempering involves heating glass up to a very high temperature. The glass surface is then cooled rapidly with blasts of cool air. This fast outside cooling associated with a slower internal cooling results in tempered glass. What forms is a glass that is under tensile and compressive stress. You may have heard of a Prince Rupert’s drop before. This was one of the first discovered instances of tempered glass.
Impenetrable Glass
Ballistic or impenetrable glass refers to glass that is designed to stop ballistics or gunfire. This glass protects you from the bad guys. Glass can be a misleading name when talking about ballistic glass though as it is a glass and acrylic mix. With discoveries in molecular and material science, products such as BallistiMAX are extremely strong and lightweight. While the term bulletproof glass is used colloquially, members of the industry usually refer to it as bullet- resistant or ballistic glass.
How Is Impenetrable Glass Made
Making ballistic glass is a specialized process. The glass is made by laminating regular glass with layers of specialized polycarbonate. The poly is what has been scientifically developed to stop bullets in their tracks. Other technologies such as COUNTERFIRE allow personnel to fire back out at the assailants. Ballistiglass’ BallistiMAX glass is some of the lightest ballistic glass available weighing in at only 11.4 lbs. per square foot. The glass can be retrofitted onto your existing glass meaning that installation is faster and more convenient.
What Does Ballistic Glass Stop
In our tests, we have stopped weapons as large as AK-47s and AR-15s. The AK-47 uses a 7.62 caliber bullet and together with the AR-15 is one of the most commonly used firearms in mass shootings. Ballistic glass has no problems dealing with bullets from 9mm pistols.
Get The Best Impenetrable Glass: BallistiMAX
Whether for private individuals or police departments, we’re proud to have a flawless track record when it comes to our customers. If you’re interested in learning more about our products why not fill out our contact form and we’ll be in touch. Alternatively, if you’d prefer direct contact, give us a call (954) 612-6640.
