Wired glass
Wired glass is a flat glass that is made by continuous casting or rolling. It is provided with an inlay of a steel wire mesh welded at all crossing points.
Manufacturing
Wired glass is manufactured using a rolling process. The glass melt is formed into an endless flat glass band between two counter-rotating, water-cooled steel rollers. The wire mesh is inserted into the highly viscous melt via a special feed directly before shaping.
properties
If the glass breaks, the wire mesh binds the broken pieces. This minimizes the risk of broken glass falling. In addition, the broken wire glass has a certain residual strength. This makes wired glass suitable for overhead glazing, such as canopies.
However, wired glass is not safety glass. If wire glasses break, particularly serious injuries can be caused by protruding fragments and wires. If they break through, the structure of the sharp-edged pieces of glass leads to severe injuries, especially when limbs are withdrawn. For this reason, wired glasses are not to be used in traffic and common areas unless they are effectively shielded against personal contact. The possibility of direct body contact with wired glass must therefore be avoided in order to exclude hazards. Because of the considerable risk of injury, wire glass is nowadays viewed as impermissible in doors (e.g. tubular frame doors), windows and railings, for example.
Due to the different thermal expansion behavior of wire and glass, it is prone to large temperature fluctuations. Since the wire insert is a potential source of error, the strength is reduced compared to conventional float glass.
use
The use of wired glass is declining due to the development of laminated safety glass and toughened safety glass . Wire glass is used, among other things, as:
- Glazing on canopies over doorways
- Balcony canopies
- Inclined winter garden glazing
The usage
- as glazing of window and door openings
- in furniture construction and interior design
is no longer considered state of the art today due to the risk of injury described above. Laminated safety glass or toughened safety glass should be used here instead .
References and footnotes
- ↑ EN 572-1: Glass in building - Basic soda-lime silicate glass products - Part 1: Definitions and general physical and mechanical properties; German version EN 572-1: 2004
- ↑ G. Nölle: Technique of glass production. 3. Edition. Deutscher Verlag für Grundstoffindindustrie, 1993, ISBN 3-342-00539-4 , pp. 143-144.
- ^ II Kitaigorotski: Technology of the glass. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1957, pp. 235-236.
- ↑ Technical rules for workplaces ASR A1.7: Doors and gates
- ↑ DGUV-Information 208-014: Glass doors, glass walls
- ↑ Andreas Kalweit: Material and production decision-making bases for designers and engineers In: Handbook for technical product design page: 259