Safety Glass Breaks If Hit By Ceramic

I can break a big piece of tempered glass with a little ceramic chip.

Safety glass breaks if hit by ceramic.

First this is impact not a uniform load. When safety glass shatters it is designed to stay in one place keeping all shards together and preventing sharp edges from harming people. This concentrates the force of the hit to a small enough area on the glass that it can scratch and fracture it. Although effective spark plug fragments will not work all the time.

Second the rock may have a hardness similar to the glass. The impact of the shard against the glass creates a tiny structural failing which rapidly spreads the tension through the rest of the screen causing it to break. It is brittle so it breaks easily. When regular glass shatters it breaks into several sharp pieces and spreads everywhere.

The glass may be able to resist 200kg of evenly distributed load but that is very different from a rock. When broken the pieces form razor sharp edges that can cause serious injury. Spark plugs are made of aluminum oxide ceramic which is exceptionally hard. Safety glass is designed to shatter differently from other types of glass to help prevent injuries from flying shards.

Breaking your car s windows in an emergency might be tougher than you think study says. Safety glass is the generic name for glass which has been treated to make it safer than normal glass. Aaa found that more and more cars are being equipped with laminated side windows that are almost impossible.