CUT LOSS DUE TO ON-SITE BREAKAGE.
No one enjoys hearing the shattering sound of glass breaking. It can be a more than unsettling experience, especially if it happens to be on your own property and you are responsible for paying for any damages. However, heat-soaking is a way that an expert architectural glass company such as High Performance Glazing can help improve the heat resistance of some types of glass.
Here is a bit of background information to help you understand heat-soaking and why it is such an important process in choosing the type of glass for your home or building.
Why the use of Heat Soaking?
Every fabricated float glass by fluctuation presents a level of imperfection. One of them is the inclusion of nickel sulfate. Most of them are steady and do not create a problem, but there exists a possibility that those inclusions provoke spontaneous breakages in the tempered glass without applying stressful thermal charges.
Heat Soaking is a process that can expose the inclusions of NiS in the tempered glass. At High Performance Glazing, we have the ability with our “Heat Soak Oven” to meet all heat soak job requirements at current North American standards.
The Process of Heat Soaking
The tempered glass is placed inside a chamber where the temperature increases until approximately 290 C, a process that accelerates the expansion of the sulfate. The glasses that would have the inclusions of nickel sulfate will immediately break inside the heat soaking chamber, thus reducing the risk of potential field breakage.
Glass without detrimental inclusions will retain proper temper properties and will have minimal risks of spontaneous breakage in the field.
While Heat soaking is not 100% effective it will reduce the probability of breakage from a standard 8 in 1,000 to 5 in 1,000
Diving Deeper:
The heat resistance of tempered glass is tested through heat soaking, which is when the heat exposure from an oven is used to artificially age the material and determine its strength. When glass is heat soaked, it is thermally treated after any toughening or laminating process. This heat treatment is done in an oven or heat-soaking tunnel at a temperature of 290°C for several hours.
In recent years, heat soaking has been found to have two benefits: strengthening the surface and creating a longer lasting glass by including nickel sulphide as part of the heat treatment process. This improves heat resistance as well as avoiding potential breakages and incurred costs as a result of the damages.
The heat treatment process of heat soaking glass is done by combining heat, time and material. Heat and heat soak times can be altered to suit variations in thickness and heat absorption.
Heat-soaking glass does not just provide a surface resistance but also acts as a toughening treatment for laminated or strengthened safety glass of any type.
In commercial properties it is common for glass to be placed in inaccessible places, making it more complex and inconvenient to replace if needed. Heat-soaking increases heat resistance and avoids potential breakages which is an inconvenience for commercial properties given the volume of windows that need to be repaired.
To prevent the risk of breakages, architects should specify heat-soaked glass. Glass units with this treatment are already proved to withstand intense thermal strain and will not cause any further damage during installation or in future use - so you can relax!
The process of heat strengthened glass can be tricky. If you're curious about how heat soaking works or want someone on your project team that specializes in this field and is a trusted glass supplier, reach out to us.
