Window disintegrated

Do you have any pictures? was there anything left of the window?

Typically, car windows are tempered glass. Tempered Glass has so much internal stress that the smallist chip can cause this sort of disintegration. It is actually the /only/ material that can't be cut, even by specialty equipment like waterjets. They just shatter.

 

We had a similar incident years ago with our van - In our case, the side window disintigrated as designed when it got hit by a rock thrown by a mower. It's fortunate that it did because the small pieces landed all over my young daughter in her car seat. She had *no* injuries. If the glass hadn't been designed to disintegrate, she would have had major cuts.

Our insurance company filed a claim with the state and they picked up all of the expenses.

 

That was The West Wing.

Of course, my feeling is that you shouldn't be smoking on submarines anyway.

But I asked my Dad about this years ago when there was a lot of reporting in the news about $600 toilet seats and screw drivers. He worked as an engineer on contract and sometimes for the military. He says the problem is that the military will have all sorts of specifications for, say, a screwdriver. You can't just go to Sears and buy a set of craftsmen because there isn't any data about whether they meet the criteria set up the government. So you have to custom make the screwdriver and then you have to design and build the test equipment to make sure the screwdriver meets all of the standards of the contract. You have to pay people to design and build the test equipment and then run the tests and provide adequate documentation.

I understand things are a lot better now and the military actually does buy "off the shelf" items now. I can understand needing special, expensive tools for the shuttle, but for the local base auto shop, they should just go to Sears.

And there is no need for ashtrays at all. They shouldn't be smoking anyway.

I hope the insurance company does file a claim against the State road crew since the broken window was caused by the rock being thrown and that in itself is really dangerous. What if the window was down and a person was sitting there and got hit in the head with a rock? They'd be dead.

 

Your comprehensve coverage should cover the damage. As in the case above, they will then subrogate against responsible party if that is known.

 

Laminated glass is more expensive, and it also could prevent getting someone out of the car quickly in an emergency.

Tempered glass is designed to shatter into tiny cubes when broken - these may give someone some small cuts if they're near the window when it's blown-out, but nowhere near the damage of untempered glass shards.

Just one of those unlucky freak occurances. Unlikely that it would ever happen to you again.

Dave

 

Some cars do have laminated glass all around as an option, cars like the Audi A8L. In that application it's meant to deter "smash and grab" assaults.

The next step up is some sort of ballistic glass like Type I or Type II, all the way up to Type IV or V.

Tempered automotive glass is a huge compromise between strength, safety, and convenience/cost. As you noted, when it lets go the tension literally blows the pebbles all over the interior. This is "spalling"

I wish tempered glass did have a plastic liner on the inside to control the spalling. A tinting process will provide this, so will most ballistic glass for obvious safety reasons.

It might seem reasonable to have glass just as strong as the windshield all around the vehicle. However, if you should happen to roll the vehicle and are trapped, you would never be able to get out on your own.

As a teenager in Utah, I would sneak to an old dump with some friends. We'd try to kick in windshields (From inside and from outside) of old junker cars.

It's a lot harder than the movies and TV make it appear. From the inside it's impossilbe.

 

One of the most common methods to break into cars is to flick a porcelain chip from a spark plug at a side window.

 

Yup, I heard about that too. Apparently it shatters the window almost without any sound at all. A favorite of thieves.

do not know if it would set-off the glass breakage detector though (may not be loud enough to trigger it).

Dave

 

It may be hard to break out, but it is not impossible to crack. My friend's daughter cracked his windshield with her foot during one of her tantrums.
On another one of his cars, the passenger airbag cracked the windshield. Again because of the daughter. She was learning to drive, and banged the van into the side of the garage opening, which is cement block construction.

 

I cracked my windshield from the inside being both stupid and lazy.

I had a Nissan 200sx hatchback at the time. I was packing up my classroom at the end of the year (so didn't want to make that many trips back and forth between home and school = lazy) and so packed the car full and the last thing I put in was a ladder = stupid. On the way home I took a ditch a little too fast and the ladder bounced down and then UP and cracked the windshield from inside.

Boy, I'll never by that lazy or stupid again. At least, not in the same way. I'm sure I'll find something else to be stupid and lazy about.