Toughened Windows

Toughened glass, also known as tempered glass to our U.S. customers, is commonly used in applications where windows are placed under a great amount of physical strain or pressure. Knight Optical offers a range of custom toughened windows in a variety of glass types, most commonly borosilicate or equivalent or float glass.

Our custom range of toughened glass is vastly more resistant to breakage than untoughened counterparts. The toughening effect is achieved by heating the glass beyond its annealing point (560ºC for borofloat or equivalent, 546ºC for white float glass), then rapidly cooling the surface. This causes the surface to contract, producing compressive stresses. The inner portion of the window is allowed to cool more slowly – this variation in cooling rate between the inside and surface of the glass produces tensile stresses in the inner portion of the window. The balance between tensile and compressive stress gives our custom toughened windows their increased mechanical resistance properties.

Typical applications for our custom toughened windows include safety windows for industrial environments, pressure windows for underwater camera applications and protective windows in optical assemblies. Our custom toughened windows are available in a range of diameters and thicknesses, from small assembly windows less than 30mm in diameter to large protective windows with diameters over 250mm.

Knight Optical supply high quality custom toughened windows made to your exact specification. Our highly skilled metrology and QA technicians are able to individually inspect and test each component to ensure it meets our exemplary quality standard.

Contact our multilingual technical sales team and discover how Knight Optical’s high quality custom toughened windows can improve your product and supply chain experience.