Exploring Window Options For Residential Buildings

Reinforced glass, whether it's safety glass, laminated glass, tempered glass, or normal glass with a safety film applied, can offer many benefits to a business owner. In addition to being more durable, it's also better suited to applications with many people around who could be harmed by flying glass shards in the event of breakage. Here are five benefits you may incur when you choose reinforced glass.

1. Reduces the likelihood of breakage

Although it comes in many different strengths for different applications, reinforced glass is often four times stronger than normal glass, depending on the type you choose. (Laminated glass, for example, is stronger than tempered glass.) It's true that this won't completely prevent breakage, but it will significantly reduce breakage rates and make it much less likely for glass to break accidentally. This can save you a lot of money in not only window replacement but also the worker's comp insurance increases that occur after a certain number of claims.

2. Reduces injuries in the event of breakage

If your glass does break in some violent mishap, reinforcement can help keep it from injuring people. For example, tempered glass is designed to fall into small, pebble-shaped, non-sharp pieces that are much less likely to slice someone's foot open than traditional glass shards are. And laminated glass can shatter and yet still hold its shape if the film covering it is not broken, meaning that this film could reduce or completely eliminate injuries in the event of breakage.

3. Protects your storefront displays from UV rays

Some glass coatings can not only improve the strength of your window but also protect the products displayed in your storefront. The UV rays from the sun can fade colors and make products unsellable over a period of time, but if you choose glass film that blocks UV rays, you may still be able to sell those products.

4. Makes you less likely to be the victim of casual looting

As mentioned above, reinforced glass can technically break, but it takes a lot of force. If your storefront is attacked by a casual looter who wants to rob you, he or she is probably in a hurry and may be foiled by glass that refuses to break and that, when broken, still won't shatter out of the window. The film can be cut with the correct equipment, of course, but if the thief doesn't come prepared to deal with reinforced windows, your store may escape without loss of merchandise.

5. May even slow down bullets

Some reinforced glass products even make the risky claim that they can retard the progress of bullets. While it's true that any physical object that stands in a bullet's way can impede its forward motion, reinforced glass (since it's so much stronger than normal glass) is much better at this than traditional windows are. That's not to say that they can actually stop bullets, of course, especially at close range, but they may diminish their impact.

These five benefits show that in addition to being less susceptible to accidents, your glass will also be less susceptible to vandals if you choose to have it reinforced, meaning that choosing tempered glass or even applying safety film can save you from many unfortunate events.