Brian's giving you the correct basic information, but has the terminology
just a bit wrong .

It's "tempered" glass that "dices" into a zillion pieces when broken,. It is
used for the side windows of automobiles, for shower doors, patio doors,
etc. Notably, tempered glass is much stronger against wind load and impact
than plain annealed glass.

"Laminated" glass, used in windshields, skylights, security doors, etc.,
contains two or more layers of glass bonded to a plastic interlayer. The
glass is usueally annealed, but can also be tempered or heat-treated.

See http://www.alumaxbath.com/tech/tgp.htm for tempered glass, and
http://www.saflex.com/pages/about/ for laminated glass.

Alex

"Brian D" wrote in message
news:zthxb.120989$Dw6.554305@attbi_s02...
Tempered safety glass. It breaks in long cracks instead of a zillion
little
pieces. This is OK because the windshield is made from two layers of
glass,
with a layer of mylar in between to hold the mess together when it breaks.
Side and rear windows are 'safety glass', which is the stuff that breaks
into a zillion little pieces, but have relatively rounded corners in the
breaks so that they are not as sharp.

Brian

--
My boat project: http://www.advantagecomposites.com/tongass


"WaIIy" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 01:51:41 GMT, "Lew Hodgett"
wrote:



OTOH, laminated safety glass, while abandoned years ago for
automobiles,
would simply crack when hit.

What kind of glass do they use in windshields on the new cars?