Laminated Glass

So much glass is laminated glass; quite outstanding, really.

  • Laminated glass is a glass that fails to break apart on cracking, a quality that causes the glass to be categorised as a ‘safety glass’.
  • Laminated glass is made of layers of glass, and resin or acetate, generally PVB or EVA, which bond to the glass and hold it together.
  • When cracked, laminated glass typically fractures in rings, a pattern that is comparable to a spider web.
  • Frenchman Édouard Bénédictus, an artist and chemist, invented laminated glass in 1903, after a flask made of glass failed to scatter into pieces across the floor when he accidentally knocked it off a shelf, as it had unintentionally been coated with a plastic film.
  • Commonly, the glass layers of laminated glass are each 2.5 millimetres (0.1 inch) thick, with a 0.38 millimetre (0.01 inch) thick thermoplastic layer situated between the two glass layers, although thicknesses can vary, depending on their application.
Laminated Glass
Slabs of Laminated Glass
Image courtesy of warrenski/Flickr
  • As a general rule, the strength of laminated glass is directly proportionate to the amount or thickness of plastic and glass layers it has.
  • Édouard Bénédictus filed a patent for laminated glass in 1909, and while it was designed for automobile windscreen use, it was not until after it had been used in World War I for gas mask lenses that it became widely accepted for the use of windscreens and was enforced in some circumstances by the 1930s.
  • Laminated glass with small fractures can be fixed through a process of drilling, filling with resin, and curing the resin with ultraviolet light.
  • Laminated glass is most commonly used in windows for both automobiles and buildings, although it has many other applications.
  • As a glass considered excellent for high security purposes, laminated glass is notoriously difficult to cut, is resistant to many weapon types and is unaffected or safe in the case of natural disasters.
Bibliography:
Laminated Glass, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminated_glass
Laminated Safety Glass, n.d, National Glass, http://www.nationalglass.com.au/catalogues/NGP_Section_05.pdf
Safety Glass, 2007, The Great Idea Time, http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/safglass.htm

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