Safety glass is glass that has been manufactured with added features that make it either less likely to break or safer if it does break. Some of the common types are wire mesh glass, laminated glass, and tempered glass.

Tempered safety glass is used in many applications in your home. Some of these are oven doors, storm doors, computer monitors, and shelves in your refrigerator.

This kind of safety glass is heat treated to be up to 10 times stronger than regular glass. It is also called toughened glass.

While regular, or standard, glass breaks into shards with sharp points and edges, tempered safety glass breaks into pebble shaped pieces with rounded edges. It is also heat resistant to an extent.

Tempered glass is used in eyeglasses where safety is a concern and in places in your home where standard glass could become a problem.

Another type of safety glass is laminated glass, one of the best forms of safety glass. This type has a layer of vinyl between two layers of annealed glass.

This inner layer prevents the other layers of glass from becoming dangerous even though they still break into shards. The vinyl layer keeps the pieces of broken glass contained.

Laminated glass as safety glass could be used in your home in table tops. If your young children should break the table top, the shards would be held in place.

A third type of safety glass is wired glass. It is made by inserting specially welded glass wire into molten glass just before it is fed into rollers to make sheets. This type of safety glass is not stronger, but the wire keeps broken glass inside the frames when it is used in windows.

It is used in fire doors and windows because it meets most fire codes.

One issue with wired glass is it can’t be tempered. Also, it is not stronger than other forms of glass.

When you have a need for safety glass or any other glass need, call FEDERAL GLASS AND MIRROR at 508-872-3563. Mike and John Purpura have a long family history of excellence in many types of glass replacement and installation.