What Is The Difference Between Laminated And Tempered Car Windows?
A lot of drivers do not spend a lot of time thinking about their car windows unless they are opening them, cleaning them or something goes wrong with them.
In the case of the latter, dedicated vehicle glass insurance is available to help deal with chips, cracks and breaks, either through high-quality dedicated repairs or outright replacement.
These replacements are not only legally required, but they can be vital for preserving the safety of everyone in the car.
However, not all car vehicle glass is the same; as different parts of the vehicle have their own needs and applications, there are various glass technologies used to make them.
All of them aim to make car glass safer and stronger than conventional glass, which can shatter into sharp pieces and potentially cause serious injury, but how they react to forces and impacts are often extremely different.
Laminated Glass
The type of glass used for windshields is known as laminated glass, and it is designed to remain intact even after an accident.
It typically consists of at least two (but sometimes more) layers of glass with polymer layers sandwiched between them.
The idea is that not only will it take more force for the glass layers to break, but when they do, the pieces and shards of glass will not fly everywhere but instead will stick in place, creating a series of cracks often described as looking like a spiderweb.
It also has a few other side effects, such as UV protection during sunny days, greater protection from the engine and other exterior sounds and an increased structural rigidity to the car.
The main catch is that once it does break, it can significantly hurt visibility, as rather than the shards and glass pieces being in the way, they will remain and spread across the surface of the glass, meaning that until it is fixed, driving the car is often technically illegal.
Laminated glass is always used for windscreens, but in some more recent car models, it is also used for the front side windows. This is partly due to a desire for sound insulation, but also because laminated glass protects the drivers and passengers from potentially being thrown out of the vehicle during certain types of crashes.
Tempered Glass
Whilst laminated glass is designed to never completely break, tempered glass is designed to be much stronger than conventional glass against most types of impact, but shatter safely into small pieces when hit with the right force.
The reason why a driver and their passengers would want tempered glass on their side and rear windows is in the unfortunate event that a car ends up in a position where the doors will not open, such as a crash or ending up underwater.
Both of these events, the latter especially, are somewhat unlikely, but in the event that they do happen, a dedicated glass-breaking tool can be used to break the window safely and allow everyone to escape.
There is some debate about which type of glass is better for side windows, with the general consensus being that as long as at least one of the windows breaks quickly when required, the safety benefits of laminated glass outweigh those of tempered glass.