Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, Coatsworth Road, NE8 1QL**
Opening times: 24 hours a day*
Free phone: 0800 051 8637
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, Coatsworth Road, NE8 1QL**Opening times: 24 hours a day*Free phone: 0800 051 8637
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Toughened Glass
There are two types of Toughened glass; heat-treated and chemically treated. There are then two further types of heat-treated glass; heat-strengthened, and fully-tempered. Fully-tempered heats the glass to above its annealing point, and then rapidly cools the glass. This makes it approximately four to six times tougher than standard float glass, enabling it to qualify as a safety glass that conforms to BS 6206 Class A.
Heat-strengthened follows a similar process, but is only twice as tough, and does not qualify as a safety glass. Chemical toughening involves running the glass through a bath of molten potassium nitrate, which exchanges the smaller sodium ions in the glass, with the bigger potassium ions in the molten bath.
The advantages of this are two-fold; the glass is tougher than when heat treated, and this approach can be applied to glass of complex shapes and sizes, making it suitable not just for glass sheets, but also for glass ornaments, and glass of unusual sizes.
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