The Key to Tempered Glass Quality

What are the key factors in tempered glass quality, and whether its pressure-bearing capacity can be improved?

Tempered glass is widely used in daily life, and its quality requirements are becoming increasingly stringent. As we all know, Reuben was the only player to fail in the fifth anniversary Guinness World Records challenge, breaking 17 pieces of tempered glass in my country. Many netizens have expressed disagreement over the failure and the challenge itself.

Selecting an appropriate heating temperature based on the load of the electric heating furnace helps control the temperature within the furnace. Glass heating in a tempering furnace primarily involves conduction, radiation, and convection. The furnace load mentioned here does not refer to the area occupied by the glass within the furnace, but rather the relationship between glass thickness, heating temperature, and heating time.

For uniform heating, the installation of the glass on the countertop is also crucial. Proper placement of the discharge plate ensures uniform vertical and horizontal load within the furnace. This means that the placement of the glass discharge plates and the interval between each furnace should be uniform.

Tempered glass is a type of prestressed glass. To increase its strength, compressive stress is typically created on the glass surface through chemical or physical methods. When subjected to external forces, this stress is primarily offset by the surface stress, thereby improving its load-bearing capacity and enhancing its resistance to wind pressure, cold, heat, and impact.

This load-bearing capacity significantly improves its brittleness. Damage to tempered glass results in small, non-sharp fragments, significantly reducing injury. Tempered glass's resistance to sudden changes in temperature is 2-3 times greater than that of ordinary glass, typically withstanding temperature fluctuations exceeding 150°C, significantly preventing thermal cracking.

Tempered glass is made by heating high-quality float glass to near its softening point and then rapidly cooling it. This distributes the compressive stress on the surface, while the tensile stress is concentrated in the core. This robust and balanced compressive stress offsets the tensile stress generated by external pressure, thereby increasing the safety of the glass.