John=89]=20
=20
wrote:
In article , turtle
wrote:

Will tempered glass windows be stronger in standing up to things like
earthquakes and hurricanes vs. standard annealed glass? Or is the
only real advantage the safety of breaking into balls instead of
shards?

Yes.

Tempered glass is approximately four times stronger than annealed glass
against a direct impact. I have smacked a piece of tempered repeately
with a hammer with no effect. Tempered has two weaknesses however
which should be OK in an earthquake but not in a hurricane.

First, it has tender edges; you can beat on it with a hammer with no
effect, but tap an edge or a corner and it's gone. Second, it is
succeptible to small, high speed missiles. You can throw a baseball or
a chunk of 2X4 at it with no problem, but a BB or a small rock tossed
by a lawnmower will vaporize it.

Caveat Emptor.

John

Yes it is very tough. I destroyed an old shower door I needed to get
rid of. Layed in on the concrete floor of the garage and whaled away
with a sledge hammer (12 lb) Took several tries before it pulverized.
Point impact will destroy one instantly. One trick rescue/police use
is a spring loaded center punch. One snap and you have gravel.

Harry K

On 11 Jun 2005 08:12:44 -0700, someone wrote:


Point impact will destroy one instantly. One trick rescue/police use
is a spring loaded center punch. One snap and you have gravel.

Indeed. One of the things I have in the center console of my car, is
a belt knife commonly issued to rescue squad personnel, that has a
spring-loaded punch built into the handle for that purpose. I figure
if my car got pranged and jammed the door, if the electricals were out
(car has power windows) I would want to be able to get out of the damn
thing if I needed too.....


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.