We understand the sinking feeling business owners face following a report of a shattered glass window or display case. To prevent this, you want to make sure any glass installation or replacement passes safety standards and holds up under stress. One way to ensure secure and impact-resistant glazing is by choosing tempered glass. But how can you tell if the glass is tempered, especially if it was installed before you moved into the building? Keep reading to learn how to identify tempered glass via 5 simple tests.
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Here&#;s an overview of 5 different means of identifying tempered glass:
We&#;ll discuss these in more detail later, but first, let&#;s define what tempered glass is and its use.
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Tempered glass is reinforced glass that has been heat treated to increase its strength and durability. For businesses, it&#;s an ideal choice for doors, windows, display cases, and any other application where safety and security are a concern.
Tempered glass is 4 to 5 times stronger than regular annealed glass of the same thickness. When it breaks, it shatters into small granular chunks instead of sharp shards. This greatly reduces the risk of injury. It&#;s also more resistant to thermal stress and impact.
We recommend opting for tempered glass if you have large expanses of glazing, especially in high-traffic areas. It complies with building codes for applications like doorways, skylights, and windows near walkways. It can also withstand more extreme temperature changes without cracking. For best practices, ensure you hire commercial glass replacement experts for your tempered glass installations.
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When choosing glass for your business, it&#;s important to know the visual difference between tempered glass and regular glass.
Here are 5 cues to help you identify tempered glass visually:
These visual cues and identifiers can guide you towards selecting the right glass for your office needs and prevent any unsafe situations. For high-traffic, public-facing areas of your business, tempered glass is typically the best choice due to its enhanced safety and durability. If you&#;re unsure of the type of glass in your office building or don&#;t know how to tell the difference between tempered glass and regular glass, reach out to glazing inspection specialists for expert guidance.
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Some methods for identifying tempered glass are DIY-friendly, while others require special equipment.
Here&#;s how to identify tempered glass in 5 ways:
Look closely at the glass edge: tempered glass will have a smooth, slightly rounded edge without sharp corners. Untempered glass has a sharp, unfinished edge. You may also notice small nicks or divots in the glass edge. Tempered glass has undergone intense heating and rapid cooling, so its surface is more durable.
Hold polarised lenses or sunglasses up to the glass. Rotate the lens and look for spots that darken &#; this indicates the glass is tempered. Polarised light reacts differently when passing through tempered glass due to a strain pattern induced by heat strengthening during manufacture.
Gently tap the glass with a coin or similar object. Tempered glass will produce a ringing, musical tone. Untempered glass gives a dull &#;thud&#;. The tempering process causes the glass to vibrate at a higher frequency.
Carefully apply a small amount of heat, such as from a lighter flame, to an inconspicuous area of the glass for a few seconds. Remove the heat and check if the glass surface cracked &#; if not, it&#;s likely tempered. Tempered glass can withstand much higher temperatures due to the strengthening it receives during manufacturing.
Scratch the glass with a hard object like a key. If the scratch feels smooth, the glass is tempered. An untempered glass scratch will feel sharp and gritty. The tempering process also makes the glass surface much harder to scratch or damage.
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The visual inspection and tap test are simple DIY tests, while the other methods require caution and the proper equipment. If there&#;s any doubt about the glass type, it&#;s best to contact glazing refurbishment or replacement experts for inspection and to ensure safety. Protecting your employees, customers/clients, and goods should be your top priority.
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While tempered glass is extremely durable, it can be difficult to cut or replace. Once tempered, the glass cannot be cut, drilled, or engraved without shattering.
However, there are a few options for modifying or replacing tempered glass panels, including:
If you need to resize a tempered glass panel, the only option is to have new pieces of glass cut to size and the tempered glass panel replaced. Measure the area carefully and have new, tempered glass cut to size. The new glass will then need to go through the tempering process to strengthen it.
Drilling holes in tempered glass will cause it to shatter immediately. If you need to mount hardware or fixtures to tempered glass, you&#;ll need to drill holes in a non-tempered glass panel and have it tempered afterwards. The tempering process will &#;heal&#; the holes and strengthen the glass. Alternatively, you can have threaded inserts or anchor points installed in the glass before it&#;s tempered.
Any edge work, grinding, or polishing must be done before the glass is tempered. Once strengthened, the glass edges cannot be modified. If you need round, bevelled, or polished edges, specify this when having the non-tempered glass cut to size. The glass can then be tempered as needed after edge work is complete.
Tempered glass cannot be repaired if damaged or broken. Any chips, cracks, or breaks in the glass will compromise its strength, necessitating replacement. Have new, non-tempered glass cut to size and replace the damaged tempered glass panel instead. The new panel can then be tempered to match.
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If you&#;re wondering if you can cut tempered glass, the short answer is no; they cannot be modified or repaired once strengthened. All cutting, drilling, edge work, and repairs must be done before the glass is tempered. If modification or replacement is needed, new non-tempered glass panels must be custom cut and then strengthened to match. However, you&#;ll typically need glazing experts to handle this &#; contact us today to discuss your project details.
Here are 5 ways to determine if a glass is tempered:
No, you cannot cut tempered glass. Tempered glass is a type of safety glass that has been heat treated to make it stronger and more resistant to breakage. However, this process also makes it impossible to cut without shattering the glass.
If you need to cut tempered glass, we recommend hiring glazing specialists with the necessary equipment and expertise.
There are several benefits to choosing tempered glass, including:
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This guide has explored how to identify tempered glass and ensure the glazing in your office building is safe and up to code. Next time you walk through your building, keep an eye out for those telltale signs like the smooth edge, conchoidal fractures, and light distortion. If anything looks off or the glass seems unusually thin or brittle, it&#;s probably best to contact glazing professionals for assessment.
1) For centuries British pint glasses intended for measuring and serving beer were marked with a crown stamp as a declaration that the glass accurately measured a pint. In the crown stamp was replaced by the CE mark, which was a new conformity marking required by EU legislation, and the crown stamp was no longer required as a conformity marking for pint glasses in the UK.
2) The crown symbol is fondly remembered by many people as a symbol that they associate with traditional pint measures. In recognition of the heritage of the crown stamp, the Government is providing this guidance on how manufacturers can apply a crown symbol to beer glasses as a decorative mark on a voluntary basis.
3) Pint glasses used to measure and sell drinks will still be required to continue to display the legally required conformity markings to show they are accurate, in addition to any voluntary decorative markings.
4) As long ago as British pint glasses intended for measuring and serving beer were marked with a crown stamp as a declaration that the glass, when filled to the brim or to a line measure, accurately measured a pint of beer. The crown stamp therefore gave customers confidence that they were not being sold a short measure of beer.
5) Before the crown stamp was used by Local Authority Trading Standards Officers and Government-approved verifiers to indicate conformity with legal requirements. It took the form of an image of the St Edward&#;s Crown with the identification number of the trading standards inspector or government-approved verifier underneath:
Figure 1: An example of the Crown Stamp on a pint glass in use pre-.
6) The EU Measuring Instruments Directive, which came into force in , required the use of the EU-wide &#;CE-mark&#; as a conformity assessment marking for pint glasses, alongside the &#;M&#; metrology marking. To implement the Directive, legislation was introduced in the UK to replace the crown stamp with the new conformity markings set out by the EU legislation. The new conformity markings were applied by the manufacturer as a declaration that the glass met the legal requirements that applied to it, including for measurement accuracy. As a result, the use of the crown stamp as an indication of measurement accuracy for pint glasses ceased in .
7) Today, when glasses are used to measure and sell liquid &#; such as pint glasses or half pint glasses in a pub &#; they are classified as &#;capacity serving measures&#; and are regulated by the Measuring Instruments Regulations . They are required to measure liquid accurately and must carry the relevant conformity markings to signify that they meet the legal requirements:
Read more about UKCA marking
Read more about placing goods on the Northern Ireland market
8) The conformity assessment procedure options for capacity serving measures are set out in Schedule 1B to the Measuring Instruments Regulations .
Figure 2: An example of a crown symbol, the St. Edward&#;s Crown.
9) In addition to the legally required conformity assessment markings set out above, manufacturers can apply other markings to capacity serving measures provided that they:
a) Are not likely to mislead any other person as to the meaning of the marking.
b) Do not impair the visibility, legibility and meaning of the required conformity assessment markings.
10) The crown symbol can be applied on a voluntary basis as a decorative mark in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Businesses supplying glasses to international markets should continue to ensure that they satisfy the legal requirements of those markets.
11) In line with the requirements above, the application of the crown symbol is limited to use as a decorative mark only and no meaning as to measurement accuracy should be inferred from its presence on a capacity serving measure or other glassware. Only the legally required conformity assessment markings &#; the UKCA mark in GB (or the CE mark in GB until 1 January ) and the CE mark or CE + UKNI mark in Northern Ireland &#; indicate that a pint glass or other capacity serving measure may be used as a measuring instrument for trade and give confidence that the measure has been assessed and declared by the manufacturer to be in conformity with the regulations. The crown symbol does not indicate compliance with any legal requirements. It is a decorative mark which recalls British history and traditions.
12) Where a crown symbol is applied to a capacity serving measure used for the sale of intoxicating liquor:
a) The crown symbol may be any size and may be placed anywhere on the glass, provided it does not affect the visibility, legibility or meaning of:
b) The crown symbol should not be accompanied by numbers immediately below the crown.
13) Where a decorative crown symbol is applied to a glass that is not a legal capacity serving measure, any person using the glass as a container for liquid they are selling by quantity should ensure that:
a) Any indication of measurement associated with the crown symbol, (e.g. &#;1 pint&#;) is not a misleading statement.
b) A legal measuring instrument (e.g. a capacity serving measure or meter) is used for the purpose of measuring for trade in any regulated intoxicating liquor (for example the sale of draught beer or cider).
14) If the glass is not intended for use in trade (for example, if it&#;s for use in the home), the glass can display any legal and non-copyrighted design, including a crown symbol, in whichever way the manufacturer sees fit.
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