Glasses are an important part of our Building construction. Around 5000 BCE, Egypt first made glasses for jewelry. Although, manufacturing instructions for glass making were written around 650 BCE. And, as Mankind evolved so much and so did the function of Glasses. From those evolution, came the Wired Glass with its unique properties. Frank Shuman was the first one to invent these glasses.
Glasses can be used as Load bearing walls or Non-Load bearing walls. Both these are increasing the aesthetics of houses and have different properties. Wired Glasses are used as Non-Load bearing. We always suggest to readers whatever construction materials you choose should be based on their uses.
Introduction
Wired Glasses are produced by embedding wire nets into the center of sheet glass during casting. The thickness of embedding wire should be around 0.46 to 0.56 mm. The glass produced should have a minimum thickness of 6 mm.
The wire added to glass does not increase the strength. Instead it increases the resistance to shattering through impact and when broken it does not fall into pieces. These glasses also have a higher melting point than ordinary glasses.
Generally, when an ordinary glass goes through impact it breaks into several pieces. But in the case of these glasses, the embedded wire nets bind the glass and hence, doesn’t get shattered into many pieces.
Wired Glass as Flame proof material
Due to its flame proofness characteristics, it is used in fire resisting doors and windows. It is also used in skylights and roofs. The wires embedded in glass prevents it from cracking under thermal stress and hence, making it more heat-resistant than other laminating materials.
These glasses are one of the categories of safety glasses. Safety glasses have additional safety features which make them less likely to break. You may have noticed many institutional settings have these glasses installed to ensure well protection and partitioned against fire.
| Wired Glass | Unwired Glass |
|---|---|
| More fire resistant | Less fire resistant |
| Wire prevents from shattering during a threat | Glass generally breaks into several pieces when hit |
| Structurally less strong | Structurally less strong |
Recent Usage
Nowadays, the use of wired glass has declined much. The insertion of wire inside glass makes it fire resistant, not making it stronger. Hence, an unwired glass is stronger than wired glass. So, there is a risk that wired glass may cause heightened injury in comparison to unwired glass, as the wire inside glass amplifies the irregularity of any fractures.
That’s why, some countries like Canada, Australia, etc. have started to review their standards of materials in Building construction. Recently, there are various new materials that offer better fire rating and safety rating as compared to wired glass which decrease in usage of these glasses.
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