Glass staircases are certainly on-trend in the home renovation world at the moment. Whether it is our standard glass, super clear low-iron, sandblasted, coloured or shaped, our glass staircases are chosen for their aesthetic qualities. And like anything that you love – looks aren’t everything. All our toughened glass balustrades are thermally strengthened to ensure that they are safe for the job it is they are designed to do.
The toughening process takes place after the glass has been measured and cut to the correct size needed for each bespoke installation.
What is Toughened Glass?
Toughened glass is glass that has been modified by thermal treatment. The glass tempering process used to create safety glass can increase the mechanical strength of the glass by up to 4 or 5 times compared to an equivalent piece of annealed glass, provides a high strength to weight ratio and also improves the thermal strength of the glass increasing resistance to temperature changes.
No only does this process improve safety by increase the strength of the glass, but should the glass break, it fractures into many smaller, relatively harmless pieces with edges which are generally blunt rather than large, jagged shards which can cause serious injuries.
All safety glass must also be permanently marked to show compliance with safety standards. All our glass features this mark which is a legal requirement though we choose to use a small and discrete ‘furniture stamps’ because we know that aesthetics is as important to our customers as safety.
You can learn more about toughened glass by visiting the Glass & Glazing Federation (www.ggf.org.uk)
Related Reading:
Amazing Glazing (Part 1): Glass Cutting
Amazing Glazing (Part 2): Our Toughened Glass Balustrades
Amazing Glazing (Part 3): Bevelled Glass
Amazing Glazing (Part 4): Ensuring Glass Is Up To The Right Standard
Abbott-Wade Launches New Optiwhite Glass
