Contour's speciality is curved safety glass, also known as curved toughened glass, as curved heat strenghtened glass or bent and tempered glass.
We focus on small dimensions.
glass thickness from 4 to 19mm
dimensions up to a maximum of 40x80cm.
flatt tempered glass in small sizes, < 30cm
Few companies have mastered the art as Contour, to make the special curved glass shapes with very tight tolerances that also have an excellent tempering quality. To achieve this tempered glass we have developed our own equipment.
We have more than 25 years of experience in tempering curved glass. From simple curved glass shapes to highly complex 3D sag shapes. In many cases, curved tempered glass can also be combined with screen printing and other glass operations like drilled holes, special edgework, sandblasting etc.
Most commonly glass that we process is floatglass panes with clear surface, and with ground and polished edges.
What is curved safety glass
Curved tempered glass is thermally strenghtended glass that has undergone heat treatment in the special bending-tempering furnace. Because tension or stress is brought into the glass it becomes about 5 times stronger than untempered glass.
Bending and tempering are done one after the other in a single process in which the glass is bent at high temperatures off well above 600°C (1110°F). At the moment of bending the curved glass is at its maximum temperature and from this point the glass is cooled down in a fast but controlled way. This way a high level of tension is introduced in the glass.
The curved tempered glass has the same safety characteristic as flat safety glass: in case the glass is broken it will break in small parts, the strength and heat resistance is much higher than plain glass.
We maily proces normal floatglass, in thickness form 4mm up with polished edges. Next to this glass also for special glass, like extra clear glass or coloured glass, tempering is possible. Also special edge work and very small bending radius is possibe. Borocilicate and quarts glass can not be tempered.
Heat strengthened glass
Curved heat strengthened glass is a kind of safelty glass that is stronger than normal glass but when it breaks there will be less and larger sized glass parts, compaired to fully tempered safety glass. We can produce this kind of heat strengthened glass as well.
Curved laminated safety glas
Another kind of safety glass is bent laminated glass. This laminated curved glass consists of 2 layers of glass glued firmly together. Therefore glass will not shatter but will keep its form have some remaining strength, in case of breaking. The two layers of glass may be normal bent glass or even tempered curved glass.
Quality of heat strenghtened glass
Contour produces bent tempered glass, in every shape and in thickness form 4mm up. Our glass has the highest quality. This is reflected in very precise size, both in shape, bending radius and edge dimensions, but also in bending depth. We master other quality aspects like maintaining a fully transparent surface of the glass, prevention of mould marks and colour stability like no other.
Of course, impact resistance and breakage pattern of tempered glass is also important. Therefore this is tested and documented with every batch.
Price of safety glass
Most companies only produce bent safety glass in large series with very high start-up costs. Thanks to our way of working, our start-up costs are very low and even smaller series make it interesting to produce curved tempered glass. This is because we process smaller sizes and use highly flexible machines and moulds. This allows us to keep investments low and delivery times short.
Applications of tempered safety glass:
- glass in exterior lighting,
- vehicle headlights made of glass,
- vehicle sliding windows,
- machine shielding
- curved heat-resistant glass
- all in clear glass, sandblasted glass or combined with screen printing
CAN WE HELP YOU TO CREATE SPECIAL GLASS?
Feel free to contact us
CONTACT
Contour-Glasbuigerij
Hazepad 8A-15
4825 AV Breda
Nederland
Tel. 06-34112141
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Producing glass parts for lighting industry, machine and equipment construction, interior design and manufacturers of other consumer products, among others.
To customer specification and using a wide range of glass processing techniques.
That is our core activity.