Contour produces thermally tempered safety glass in-house.
We focus our serial work in small sizes.
sizes from 5x5cm up to 40x80cm
thickness from 4 to 19mm
What is tempered glass?
Toughened glass, or safety glass, is made by heating the glass in an oven to well above 600°C and then rapidly cooling it. Cooling the glass from two sides in an even and controlled manner creates three stress layers in the glass, called pressure, tension and compression layers. Because the pressure layers are on the outside of the glass, they give strength to the toughened glass. This is because the glass, like ceramic materials, is extremely resistant to pressure loads.
Toughened glass is up to about 5x stronger than untoughened glass. Moreover, if broken, the glass will break into small blunt pieces, preventing deep cuts.
Tempering of small sizes of glass, smaller than 30cm
We can temper the smallest glass sizes flatt glass for you. Dimensions smaller than 30 cm cannot be processed by many glass toughening companies, but we can also handle these sizes. In thicknesses from 4 mm to 19 mm.
Heat-resistant glass
Another property of toughened glass is its heat resistance. As a result, toughened glass is often used in stoves and furnaces.
Thermally toughened safety glass
Thermally toughened glass is the most common form of tempered glass. Its official name is thermally pre-stressed glass. Because heat treatment creates stress layers in the glass that cause strength. There is also laminated and chemically toughened glass. Thermally toughened glass is what we produce. The term 'thermal' refers to the heat treatment the glass undergoes in our furnaces.
Heat strengthened glass
Heat strengthened glass is also heat-treated glass. It is stronger then ordinary glass, but not as strong as fully tempered glass. It also does not break into very small pieces.
Laminated safety glass
There are different types of safety glass, and here the application determines the type of glass that can be chosen. For example, for balustrades, the glass must be strong enough, but it must also be protected against falling through. For this, laminated glass is better suited. These are several layers of glass glued together with a plastic interlayer. If broken, the glass parts will stay together and no gap will occur. Car windscreens also feature laminated or laminated glass these days. This is to maintain good visibility in case of glass breakage.
Laminated glass is not produced by us, but in combination with curved glass, we can provide this for you.
Customised toughened glass
We make customised safety glass. In sizes up to approx. 40x80cm. The final operation is thermal processing, and prior to this operation, the edge trim, any holes etc. must already be in place.
Can toughened glass be cut?
Ordinary glass is a brittle and isotropic material. Isotropic means that the material properties are the same in all directions. Cutting glass takes advantage of this: with the right bending load, a tensile stress will be applied to the surface and if there is a cutting line/scratch there, and the brittle glass will break here.
Toughened glass is composed of 3 layers and is therefore no longer isotropic. The pressure layer is on the outside and not the layer with tensile stress that is needed for brittle breakage.
Therefore, toughened glass cannot be cut.
Can tempered glass be drilled?
Toughened glass cannot be drilled. Toughened glass is it is composed of 3 layers, the inner layer contains tensile stresses. If this middle layer is touched during drilling, the entire glass pane will break. Therefore, all operations like drilling and grinding must be done before toughening the glass.
Tempered safety glass and curved safety glass from Contour knows its way into a wide range of industries and applications:
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glass in outdoor lighting
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glass in interior lighting
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glass in catering, e.g. as a pan lid, display at dispensing machines, screening of sales showcases
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vehicle headlights made of glass
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vehicle sliding windows,
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glass machine guards.
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display road signs and nameplates
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stove glass
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oven doors and sight glasses for furnaces
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slot machines
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.