Laminated Glass In Side Windows?

The LE isn't fancy enough to have the laminated front side windows.

From this thread, it seems that of the USA trims, only the Limited and XSE+ have them.

Rear door windows and hatch glass aren't laminated.

 

You won't break hardened glass unless your glass breaker is harder than the glass. It will just make a tiny divot in the glass instead. That's why those videos of cops trying to break car windows with nightsticks are so comical. Punks use a broken spark plug to shatter the glass when they break in.

 

Tempering is the opposite of hardening. Heat-treating makes it brittle, and tempering makes it less brittle.

 

Some regional difference in usage, maybe?

Where I am in the US, the two types of glass for automotive use have been known by the terms 'laminated' and 'tempered' ever since my childhood (and presumably before). 'Tempered' can also be seen in post #1 to be the term used by Toyota.

What’s the Difference Between Laminated and Tempered Glass?

 

Tempered glass is harder than raw glass, but it got that way from being tempered down from hardened glass. I'm not sure how this relates to laminated glass.

 

I suppose I was curious how 'hardened' got into the conversation, given that laminated and tempered are the two types used for auto glass, and the two types mentioned in the OP.

 

The point was to correct the false statement that "tempered = hardened" glass.

 

The unexplained entrance of 'hardened' into the conversation, though, came in post #5, one post earlier than that "false statement".

 

The only google hits I get for harden glass involve Minecraft.
Or they redirect to tempered glass, like Tempered glass - Wikipedia

 

This link will probably look the same, but also demonstrate the point:

Tempered glass - Wikipedia

 

This is one of the stranger tangents I've seen around here lately, but it seems like Paul is confusing hardening and tempering metals to tempering glass. Same word, different specific meanings depending on the industry.

In metals, tempering removes much of the brittleness from the hardening process in exchange for losing a small amount of hardness. (just like Paul said)

In glass, the tempering process puts one side of the glass in compression and the other in tension. The process makes it about four times stronger. It also mean that, when shattered, it breaks into the small fragments without overly sharp edges.

Also in glass, I'm not seeing hardened glass as a commonly used term. It tends to be called tempered glass in the US and toughened glass in the UK. Not sure where Canada falls - sometimes they follow UK terminology and sometimes US.



As for VelvetFoot's last post, the reason Toyota is using laminated glass in the front side windows instead of tempered in the top-trim Prius is for noise reduction. Pretty much all of the higher end brands use it(unless it's a race version of a car that uses tempered because it's lighter). I think one of the very top brands(Rolls, Bentley or Maybach) even used triple layer laminate at one time(3 layers glass, 2 layers plastic). Some countries mandate at least one window must be tempered for ease of escape in an emergency. Nearly certain the US is not one of those countries.

If safety is a primary concern and you have laminated, just get one of the hammer-style car escape tools instead of the little ones. The hammer tip will still pop the glass like tempered, then you can use the head of the hammer to punch through the lamination and then work it in a circle around the outside edge of the window to clear it. Takes maybe 3 or 4 seconds more than tempered. The nice thing is that this style also works on windshields, which are all laminated glass by law.

This is just an example of the type:
Ready America Auto Emergency Hammer and Seat Belt Cutter 75403 - The Home Depot

 

This is more appropriate to the meaning of tempered glass.
Tempering (metallurgy) - Wikipedia

The process is the same as for metallurgy.

 

Hammersmith in the first paragraph of #17 may have guessed right.