Bent Toughened Glass

What Is Bent Toughened Glass?

Building glass is mainly associated with flat surfaces of facades, partition walls, and other interior design elements. However, it also has another aspect that makes it three-dimensional owing to bending.

Bent toughened glass, also known as curved toughened glass, is a type of safety glass that has been heated and then rapidly cooled to create a curved or bent shape. The process of bending provides glass with a new functional and aesthetic quality. Toughened glass, also referred to as tempered glass, undergoes a process that enhances its strength and safety characteristics compared to regular glass. This process involves heating the glass to a high temperature and then cooling it quickly, resulting in compressive stresses on the surface and tension within the core. When broken, toughened glass shatters into small, relatively harmless fragments instead of large, sharp shards.

How is Glass Bent?

With technological developments and innovations, the glass industry has improved the process of bending glass over many years. The main technologies involved in the glass bending process are:

Bending and tempering – In this type of thermal bending, glass is first heated to extremely high temperatures and bent in the bending station, based on the desired radius (usually ¼ of a circle). It is then rapidly cooled to complete the tempering process. Angling the glass can help achieve bidirectional bending, which is lengthwise and crosswise. A bent glass that is tempered offers excellent strength and durability, solar control, and thermal insulation. It also acts as a safety glass and is cheaper to produce.

Hot bending – Also known as gravity bending, molds are used in this technology. The molds along with the glass are heated to around 600°C, mostly in an electric furnace. The glass is bent in the desired shape and gradually cooled in the annealing process.

Cold bending – This type of bending is done under normal temperatures where the glass has already been tempered. Therefore, the degree to which the glass is bent is very less. The glass is first put inside a frame and mechanically bent to the required frame shape. The bent glass is then screwed or glued to the laminate frame before it can be installed. Cold bending offers the distinct advantage of higher optical quality. However, it is subject to a lot of bending stresses.

Lamination bending – In this, the hot and cold bending processes are combined along with lamination. First, the required glasses are bent. Then during the autoclave process, a thick interlayer is placed between the bent glass sheets. Though this method is expensive, flexible shapes can be produced.

Applications of Our Wholesale Bent Toughened Glass

Bent toughened glass has a wide range of applications in architectural and design contexts:

• Curved Windows and Doors: It's used to create curved or arched windows, doors, and glass facades in buildings.
• Automotive Glass: Bent toughened glass is often used for curved windshields and side windows in vehicles.
• Furniture: Curved glass tabletops, display cases, and other furniture pieces can be made from toughened glass.
• Shower Enclosures: Curved shower doors and enclosures are popular applications of bent toughened glass.
• Railings and Balustrades: It's used to create curved glass railings and balustrades in staircases, balconies, and terraces.

Common Types of Curved Glass

In order to suit the requirements of different applications, curved glass is manufactured using different types of glass. Depending on the required look or (most importantly) strength, your option for bent glass may include one of these common types:

Annealed Curved Glass

This is normal annealed glass that's been bent to the required form. Less strong than the other types of bent glass, annealed curved glass is used its look is more important than the increased costs that come with greater strength and safety or durability. These may include display cases or decorative pieces.

Tempered Curved Glass

Tempered curved glass is strengthened using heat and in addition to being bent to the required curvature level. The result is a hard glass material that can be used in many demanding applications, including architectural doors and windows. Curved tempered glass is also popularly used for internal partitions of buildings or even staircase railings.

3D Curved Tempered Glass

Unlike normal tempered glass that is flat, 3D curved tempered glass bends on the edges. It's essentially used to protect the screens of electronic devices with contoured ends. These include smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches. The curved edges allow it to seamlessly fit the ends of these screens, offering edge-to-edge protection against scratches and breakage or other forms of damage.

Laminated Curved Glass

Laminated curved glass is made by sandwiching glass sheets between a PVB plastic interlayer to produce a strong type of glass that will not only break safely but will not break easily. Common uses of the curved laminated glass include the windshields of automobiles and similar applications where safety and robustness are important requirements.

Curved Gorilla Glass

Gorilla glass, a kind of chemically strengthened glass, can be bent for a variety of uses. Curved gorilla glass is tough, scratch-resistant, and less likely to break from normal impact forces. This type of glass is often used for car windshield glass, mobile or smart watch screens, and curved television sets.

How To Measuring Curved Glass?

The distance around the outside of a circle is called a circumference. A line drawn completely through a circle is called its diameter while any line extending from the centre of a circle to the circumference is its radius. The radius of a circle will remain the same no matter where in the circle it is measured.

A circle is also made up of 360 degrees in total and any part of a circle i.e. called its arc, can be described in degrees. For example, 1 quarter of a circle would then consist of 45 degrees whereas half a circle consists of 180 degrees.

The distance around a particular bend is know as its girth or arc. When measuring this distance it is important a flexible tape is used to give an accurate measurement.

The chord of a bend is the distance from one point of the bend to the other, when measured across from point to point. To measure the depth of the curve, you take half the distance of the chord and to the top of the curve.

Finally, the height of the curved glass panel is necessary.