What is the difference between tempered, laminated and plate glass?
Tempered glass is plate glass which has gone through a process in which the glass is heated to near-melting temperatures and then cooled in such a way as to create a stronger glass. When tempered glass breaks, it shatters into many small pieces which sometimes will stay in place and sometimes scatter all around. Plate glass breaks into larger shards which are extremely sharp and therefore quite dangerous. Therefore, tempered glass is considered to be a “safety glass.” Laminated glass is also considered a safety glass. It is made by bonding two sheets of plate glass together by an interlayer of high-strength membrane. The glass will break like plate glass, but the interlayer keeps the pieces in place. Laminated glass can be used wherever safety glass is required, and is most often used where security is a consideration, since it takes great effort and a bit of time to break through laminated glass.
