GLASS SPECIFICATION
Saftey glass is required in certain critical
locations. This means that the glass must either break safely,
resist impact or be protected by permanent guarding. In
practise, this means such glazing should be either laminated
or toughened.
As you will be commissioning a piece of art that will last
a lifetime, we only use the highest specification of glass
for the decorative glass. This is always a type of saftey
glass at least 6mm thick.
Toughened glass (also known as tempered
glass) is subjected to a process that gives it increased
strength - it is up to 5 times stronger than normal annealled
glass. It will shatter into small, safe, square pieces when
broken.
For standard glazing within the home, toughened glass is
usually used in thicknesses from 4mm up to 10mm. For our
decorated etched glass, we only ever use 6mm or above.
Laminated glass is produced by combining
two sheets of glass with an inner plastic layer. In the
event of breakage, the panes are held in place by the inner
layer. Laminated glass is perfectly clear to look through
and is typically used in vehicle windshields.
We usually use laminated glass made up of 2 x 4mm panes
combined giving an overall thickness of 8.4mm.
Etched Saftey Stamp is the evidence on
a piece of saftey glass that it complies with BS6206.
DOUBLE GLAZING
Sealed units are two panes of glass - not
necessarily of the same thickness - kept apart by a coloured
spacer bar (usually brown or silver).
Your joiner will usually give you an overall dimension for
the unit. For example a 22mm unit may be made up of 1 pane
of decorated 6mm toughened glass and 1 pane of 4mm toughned
glass with a 12mm air gap inbetween.
It is worth noting that double glazed units can be exceptionally
heavy, particularly as the thickness of the glass increases.
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