Tempering

Whether for safety reasons or because reduced glass thickness with the same strength helps save energy, more and more products demand hardened glass for impact or shard protection. Regardless of whether the demand for single-pane safety glass or for the retention of optical properties is the more important: with thermal or chemical tempering and by laminating several sheets of glass into an impact-resistant glass laminate (laminated safety glass), we can meet even the most challenging demands of our customers.  

Chemical tempering is applied particularly in the case of thin glasses whose optical properties must remain unchanged, for example, in the manufacture of optical components for copying and measuring machines, but also in automobile engineering and the lighting industry. The bending strength is greatly increased over that of normal float glass.

Thermal tempering is used for thick glasses over 3 mm and, like chemical tempering, increases the bending strength significantly. In contrast to chemical tempering, thermal tempering produces pressure conditions that, when the glass breaks, create a true crumbling into small fragments so that there is no risk of injury. On the other hand, chemical tempering increases the bending strength but still leads to breakage into shards, leaving large glass shards behind.