How to Test for Tempered Glass
Tempered glass, also known as toughened glass and safety glass, is glass that has up to five times the strength as normal glass. Additionally, the glass is designed to break in small oval pieces that are significantly less dangerous than the jagged pieces regular glass breaks into. Tempered glass is used where human contact with glass is high (i.e., doorways and car windows). It's difficult to tell if a piece of glass is tempered, but there are a few indications you can look for. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Characteristics of Tempered Glass
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Put a pair of polarized sunglasses on and hold the glass up to a light. The polarized lenses of your sunglasses will reveal a pattern of hardening on the surface of the glass. This pattern is distinctive to tempered glass. You'll clearly be able to see that the pattern does not go all the way through to the core of the glass.
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2
Feel the surface of the glass for a slightly rough edge. Tempered glass is treated with heat to get its strength. Sometimes this process is done incorrectly and gives the glass a textured, slightly rough feel.
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3
Look for the smallest cracks or chips in the glass. Tempered glass is made to completely break apart if even the smallest crack or chip occurs.
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4
Look for a slight bend in the glass. The heat treatment tempered glass goes through sometimes creates what is called a small bow. You can look at the glass from the sides to see if there is a slight curvature to the glass.
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Tips & Warnings
Some tempered glass come with an etching in the corner indicating that it is tempered. This would be extremely helpful except for that fact that the etching is usually covered if the glass is set in place.
References
- Photo Credit broken glass in an old window with blinds image by Ivonne Wierink from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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#3 is not quite right.... From working in a glass shop, I can say that I have certainly seen small clams/chips in the edge of tempered glass that do not cause the entire piece to fail. Cracks, however, will not be seen in tempered glass, because unlike surface chips that don't penetrate far into the core of the glass, a crack will propagate through the entire thickness, causing the glass to fail.
