Laminated Glass

Laminated glass is made by bonding two or more layers of glass together with an interlayer, typically a tough polyvinyl butyral plastic sheet, under heat and pressure, so that if the glass breaks the interlayer holds the fragments in place rather than allowing them to fall away. Invented in the early twentieth century and adopted first for automobile windshields, it became an important architectural safety and security glazing material, used for overhead glazing, skylights, storefronts and hurricane- or blast-resistant facades, and its ability to be combined with tempering, tinting and acoustic interlayers has made it a common choice for high-performance contemporary glazing systems.