Tag: shatterproof glass

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How to Burglarproof Your Home with Shatterproof Glass

How To Burglarproof Your Home With Shatterproof Glass

How can you burglarproof your home with shatterproof glass?

  1. Examine your windows
  2. Contact the experts
  3. Take extra precautionary measures

 

As a homeowner, you won’t be able to sleep at night without the comfort of knowing that your house is safe and sound. Same goes when you’re out to work, or have to leave town for a few days. One practical and vital countermeasure: burglar-proof your windows. This is critical in securing and protecting your home from any intruders and trespassers. If you (and you should) make this upgrade, replace your window panes with shatterproof glass as soon as you can. We’ll discuss how it’s the best way to protect you and your loved ones from an untimely break-in.

 

Examine your windows

Pool Terrace And Pink Floating Duck In Infinity Swimming Pool

Why the windows? They are the most vulnerable part of your home. The thin glass only takes a few seconds to penetrate and break, buying time for the criminals to loot your belongings and hatch their escape plan. Unsecured, they also serve as multiple entry points to your home. What’s more, there are numerous ways to reduce the noise of shattering – a large damp towel can cushion a portion of the glass shards, for instance.

The windows also place your house interior on display for the public to view. Those with criminal intent can do a preliminary scan of how your furniture is situated, your daily patterns and behaviors, and what high-value items can be pilfered. Should a break-in be attempted, your windows are the easiest and most efficient gateway to enter through.

As early as you can, you should augment your most exposed windows of opportunity, if not all, with shatterproof glass. It is made of plastic plates and resin, or a laminated interlayer of elastic polymers, nestled inside two glass panels to prevent instantaneous shattering. Excessive external blunt or piercing force results in the glass cracking into a web-like pattern at most, but does not create any openings or holes where the trespasser can lodge his hand in and open the window latch from inside. It will remain as one solid sheet of glass.

It will take a large amount of pounding and smashing before the first layer comes off – and by that time any other people outside, roving law enforcement, or your own security measures can kick in and alert the authorities about a possible break-in. The burglar-proof windows give people who happen to be inside ample time to contact any emergency hotlines to call for help or take necessary defensive measures.

 

Contact the Experts

All it takes to add this important safety and security deterrent is a call to your local shatterproof glass supplier and arrange for an assessment/ocular of your house and all its windows. They will be able to identify the primary security risks that can be helped along by installing a layer of shatterproof glass. After all, you wouldn’t want to scrimp on the safety of your family, and all your prized possessions and devices.

 

Take extra precautionary measures

Empty Door In Living Room Interior Background

To truly burglar-proof your windows, you also have to take some extra precautionary measures in ensuring that you decrease the chances of theft taking place in your residence.

Consider installing bars or grills on the most prominent windows of your house as an added safety measure. Solid metal obstructions will only improve your indoor security. While they may also obstruct your view of the streets, think that it goes both ways. But make sure that you take into account your municipality’s fire code and identify the fire exits before you do this!

A trusty motion detection/sensor system for when you are away from the vicinity can also aid in the immediate response and reporting of any anomalous movement. Paired with a webcam set-up facing strategic access points, it will allow you to monitor all unauthorized activity on the premises.

You should also obscure the view of potential opportunists. Install blinds or one-way tinting to your windows if possible. Or you can discourage them altogether. Remove valuables and expensive appliances from outsiders’ direct line of sight. The last thing you want is to entice malicious elements to make your home a viable target for the burglary.

 

Key Takeaway

These incidents happen to the most unsuspecting people, so don’t be part of the statistic. Reach out to a trusted glass supplier; invest in making your burglar-proof your windows by installing shatterproof glass.

A little home security improvement, even just to the windows, spells the vast difference between a good night’s sleep, and a torturous night in the precinct reporting all your lost possessions and valuables.

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How Shatterproof Glass is Made

How Shatterproof Glass Is Made

How is shatterproof glass made?

  1. The glass is cut to size, polished, and cleaned
  2. The glass is then further toughened
  3. Laminate interlayers are cut and applied to the glass
  4. The glass ‘sandwich’ is heated
  5. It is finally cleaned and trimmed

 

Shatterproof glass or laminated glass is one of the most used glass products in the world today. As a safety glass, it is used for a wide number of applications. You can commonly see it as automobile windshields, skylight glazing, curtain walls, and store windows. The reason for this is because when shatterproof glass is hit with a strong force, it doesn’t break into large, sharp pieces that can injure people. In fact, laminated glass will continue to stay in one piece even if it has been pierced or cracked multiple times.

Aside from its physical protection, it also protects people from harmful UV rays from the sun. Using the right materials during production can give it the potential to block 99.9% of all UV rays. Beyond its protective qualities, shatterproof glass is also good for sound insulation.

Having said all that, you may be curious as to how shatterproof glass is made. What makes it so averse to shattering and breaking? Continue reading because here is how shatterproof glass is made.

 

The initial glass is cut to size, polished, and cleaned

Laminated glass usually starts as normal sheets of glass that are cut to form a desired shape or size. This usually depends on a given client’s specifications or if it’s premade before selling, then a uniform rectangular shape is usually the go-to.  Once it is properly cut, the glass is polished and cleaned to ensure no impurities interfere with the whole process.

 

The glass is then further toughened

The Glass Is Then Further Toughened

After cleaning, the glass itself needs to be a bit tougher before undergoing the process that creates the shatterproof glass itself. To do that, it has to go through a process that involves minor heating and cooling that can be likened to ‘quenching’. Quenching makes the outer layer of the glass more compressed instead of remaining in tension. This process makes the glass a tad more resistant to breaking on its own.

 

Laminate interlayers are cut and applied to the glass

After quenching, an interlayer is cut and added per sheet. Interlayers, in this case, are elastomeric polymers such as EVA (Ethylene-vinyl acetate) or a strong binding resin such as PVB (Polyvinyl butyral) that is placed in between the glass during production. Using either material as an interlayer would allow the glass to remain bonded while broken — giving it the ‘shatterproof’ moniker.

After a couple of interlayers are added, the 2nd sheet of glass is placed on top, forming what seems like a glass ‘sandwich’. Consider this the shatterproof glass in its rawest form. The glass is held together using a mixture of clamps and tape.

 

The glass ‘sandwich’ is heated

Window Of Building With Tokyo Tower Background

In order to turn the raw glass sandwich into actual shatterproof glass, it has to be heated and compressed simultaneously. There are a number of ways to achieve this. One way to do this is by putting the glass through a ‘nip roller’. For bigger sheets of glass, another popular method involves putting the glass in a vacuum-sealed silicone bag then placed in an oven.

This process removes the air in-between the layers and allows the glass sheets to bond with the interlayer. It’s important to note here that this process is what produces that ‘spider web-like’ cracking pattern when shatterproof glass is cracked.

 

It is finally cleaned and trimmed

After the previous process of heating, what you’ll end up with is the final product. However, it still needs some touch-ups and quality control, which is why it has to be re-cleaned and trimmed. Cleaning in this sense pertains to wiping the surface and making sure that there are no blemishes that can be seen.

Trimming is done with a hot-knife tool to remove excess material from the sides of the glass. This is because of the processed interlayers that were heated, compressed, and eventually overflowed. After trimming, it is finally ready for use.

 

Key Takeaway

Understanding how shatterproof glass is made is important because it allows you to understand how the glass acquires the features it is known for. It also helps you know what kind of glass products are going to perfect for your purposes. Whether it’s for a new windshield or for hurricane-resistant glass, shatterproof or laminated glass could be the way to go.