Reinforced glass - a kind of "safe glass"

Reinforced glass - what is it for? What are its advantages, if production of this rather expensive variety of glass is in demand and is gaining momentum every day? Let's start with the method of manufacture.

Reinforced glass is produced in the following way: during the manufacturing process, a grid with cells of square or hexagonal shape is placed on a glass sheet. Reinforced glass can be either transparent or colored. In the latter case, certain metals are added to the glass melt to impart color. It can be polished or has an inverse pattern, which coincides with the reinforcing element inside the glass.

Installation of glass of this kind is justified in two cases: when it is used in premises where the use of ordinary glass is likely to cause injury, and the second case - when reinforced glass is an element of the decor of the room.

Many remember that even in the seventies and eighties, reinforced glass was widely used in various institutions: in kindergartens (not to injure children if glass breaks, schools, in buildings where there are a large number of people in some production buildings.

Wire used to reinforce glass, it can be different: both conventional steel and stainless. There is also a wire with an aluminum coating. Reinforced glass is not stronger than usual. Rather, on the contrary. At mechanical influence it is twice more fragile, than usual. But the wire prevents the glass fragments from scattering in the event that a stone or some other object gets into it. Reinforcing mesh is located on the entire surface of the glass, and the distance to the surface should be at least one and a half millimeters. In connection with this circumstance, the reinforced glass has a thickness of at least five millimeters, and in practice often - and more than that.

Reinforcing wire gives the glass the ability to evenly distribute the temperature over the entire surface, therefore such fireplaces are often equipped with fire stairs.

It happens that because of the scale used to reinforce the wire, bubbles and shells form in the glass. In these cases, it will be too fragile, so it is subject to culling. The marriage also includes insufficient immersion of reinforcing wire in glass (less than one and a half millimeters).

The Russian market receives reinforced glass of both domestic and imported production. Russian plants located in Vladimirskaya (Gus-Khrustalny) and Tver regions, supply high-quality products. From foreign products it is worth noting the products of Belarusian and Polish production. Reinforced glass is also used for manufacturing sealed insulating glass units used in plastic windows. True, such double-glazed windows are much heavier and more expensive than conventional ones.

According to Soviet standards, for which Russian and Belarusian manufacturers work, glass reinforced can be of the following sizes: length - from eighty to two hundred centimeters, in width - from forty to one hundred and sixty.