Heat Soaked Glass, the tempering process increases the strength of the glass’s many folds, offering greater resistance to breakage. However, the raw materials used in the manufacturing of tempered glass are not free from certain defects like nickel-rich contaminants such as stainless steel might be present, and then combine with sulfur to form nickel sulfide inclusions, which put tempered glass at potential risk of spontaneous breakage.

Spontaneous breakage due to NiS inclusions:

When glass is heat-treated, the nickel sulfide inclusions are modified into a form that grows or transforms with time and temperature. Once the glass is installed and the nickel sulfide inclusions are solar heated, small cracks may develop from the inclusion. If these cracks penetrate the tension layer of fully tempered glass, the resulting release of energy will cause the glass to spontaneously break.

NiS inclusions change their structure and volume during the heating process of tempering. This changed state is ^trapped^ during the quenching process. So at room temperature, the NiS inclusions tend to change back to their original state, which having a bigger volume, causes spontaneous breakage. This changing back of state could happen in a few minutes to a few years, making it unpredictable when the tempered glass may break. To minimize the risk of NiS breakages, a heat soak test is performed.

Heat Soak Process:

An effective Heat soaked test has been proposed and applied for tempered glass to avoid spontaneous failure in buildings, and the probability of spontaneous breakage was decreased. However, it was considered that a sufficiently low breakage risk remained because of small NiS inclusion and small residual stress.

Heat soaking of tempering glass has been carried out with respect to the draft of European Standard EN 14179. Following the tempering process, glass is heated to a temperature of about 290C for a minimum of 2 hours of the heat soak period, and then cooled slowly. This process allows the inclusions to revert to their original form and thus regain their stability. The advantage of using this process is that the heat-soak test removes over 95% of the problem without affecting the properties of the glass. The idea behind heat soaking is to allow the glass to break in the factory before installation to minimize the risks of accidents and injury. The amount and size of these inclusions vary from glass to glass. In all probability, the glasses that have NiS inclusions will break during this heat-soaking process.

Applications of Heat-Soaked Glass:

The use of heat-soaked tempered glass is recommended where the risk of spontaneous breakage would cause difficulty, either from a replacement point of view or where falling glass fragments may be unsuitable, such as roof or high-level glazing, balustrades, screens, and high-level curtain walling.

Heat soak glass is appropriate where there is a risk of human impact. If breakage does occur, the breakage pattern is such that the resultant pieces of glass are relatively harmless and are unlikely to cause severe injury.

Glass Fins

Glass fins represent the earliest form of structural glass facade, dating back to the 1950s French Hahn system used at the Maison de la Radio in Paris. Here 2-story glass plates were suspended and laterally stiffened by the use of glass fins set perpendicular to the plates at the vertical joints between them. But it was the Willis Faber & Dumas Building in Ipswich, England that popularized this emerging technology in 1972. In this curving facade designed by Foster Associates, multiple plates of reflective glass are suspended, providing one of the first examples of an entire building facade in frameless glass. This project inspired a diffusion of glass-fin technology in numerous applications throughout Europe and America in the 1970s, and continues to do so today. Glass fin-supported facades still represent one of the most transparent forms of structural glass facades, and are an especially economical solution at lower spans.

Glass-fin systems are quite simple in concept, utilizing a glass fin set perpendicular to the glass pane at each vertical line of the glass grid. The most challenging aspect of a glass-fin wall occurs when the span is too great to be accommodated by a single piece fin, and a splice detail must be developed to create a fin comprised of multiple glass pieces. Early systems used patch plates to fix the glass and fins together. Spider fittings are frequently used in this application today.

Glass is a transparent material seen by the light reflected from its surface. Thus, transparency in glass-fin walls is often compromised by the banding effect caused by the reflected light from the glass fin

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Safety glass is a type of glass that is designed to be less hazardous when it breaks compared to standard glass. It is manufactured using specific processes or materials that give it properties such as increased strength or the ability to break into small, granular pieces rather than sharp shards when shattered. The two most common types of safety glass are tempered glass and laminated glass.

1. Tempered Glass: Tempered glass is processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared to normal glass. When tempered glass breaks, it crumbles into small, granular chunks, reducing the risk of injury from sharp edges and shards. It is commonly used in applications where safety is a concern, such as in shower doors, car windows, and glass table tops.
2. Laminated Glass: Laminated glass is composed of two or more layers of glass with an interlayer of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) or ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) between them. When broken, the interlayer holds the glass together, preventing it from shattering into sharp pieces. Laminated glass is commonly used in applications where both safety and security are paramount, such as in windshields, storefronts, and hurricane-prone areas.

Both types of safety glass offer various benefits, including increased durability, improved safety, and reduced risk of injury. They are used in a wide range of applications in both residential and commercial settings, providing protection against potential hazards and enhancing the safety and security of the environment.