According to experts of construction materials, toughened glass is conventional glass “Tempered” up to 700^oC and to cool quickly with cool air. This is considered a safety glass thanks to its bearing capacity, strong impact resistance, effective vibration resistance, sound insulation, good thermal insulation, and the advantage of minimizing injury to users compared to glass. Dr. Kieu Le Hai, Chief of Office of Vietnam Glass Association said that toughened glass is completely safe if it manufactured to ensure standards, as well as comply with installation regulations. . Before the explosion of tempered glass just mentioned above, Mr. Hai said that there are many reasons, but the most basic is still installing glass that does not comply with regulations.

In order to install toughened glass, they must measure directly in the field, then they cut the glass to the right size and bring “tempered”. The installation process ensures the necessary elasticity. By installing close-to-wall glass, in case the house is tilted, subsidence, vibration due to the movement of external vehicles easily leads to explosion. In case the glass is not cut to the right size, must be grinded to fit the mold, the grinding process causes the glass to break underground from the inside, at some point will break … Impact impact during use, especially hitting ” The acupuncture point “of the glass plate (4 corners), causing chipping is also the reason that the glass plate loses its link, leading to the phenomenon of glass breaking.

Master Nguyen Huy Khanh, Vietnam Construction Consulting Corporation, said that the cause also came from quality issues. He explained, in the composition of toughened glass if it mixed with nickel sulphide impurities (unwanted impurities occur in glass melting process in manufacturing factories), over time will cause the risk of self-explosion. Therefore, checking the safety of toughened glass, manufacturers must invest in machines such as thermal shock furnaces. Toughened glass after standard testing will be certified as safe.

The Vietnam Glass Association said that, many large domestic glass processing and manufacturing enterprises have invested boldly and raised the standard to supply quality glass products. However, there is still a status of float glass, poor quality imported from China.

Regarding the quality management of construction glass products and goods, the Ministry of Construction issued Circular 11/2009 / TT-BXD in 2009, requesting glass production, business, design and construction organizations and individuals  must comply with regulations on quality management. The release of this Circular at that time was assessed to improve the quality management for construction glass – which was not nearly set before.

Completing the legal system and improving management on September 29^th, 2017, the Ministry of Construction abolished Circular 11/2009 / TT-BXD, promulgating Circular 10/2017 / TT-BXD on Regulation National technical standards of construction materials and products and guidance on conformity certification and conformity announcement with QCVN 16: 2017 / BXD which includes contents of construction glass. The Circular is effective from January 1^st, 2018 and is a legal corridor for the management of toughened glass quality to be improved.

However, according to the Center for Information and Technology Transfer of Building Materials (Vietnam Building Materials Association), a system of legal documents related to standards and regulations on general glass and tempered glass is still incomplete. The mandatory regulations related to safety of glass use have only been mentioned very little in Vietnam Construction Standards 05: 2008 / BXD of the Ministry of Construction and stopped at a number of safety-related regulations for impact, opening, closing and cleaning.

Ensuring safety when using toughened glass, besides choosing quality products, experts of construction materials also advise people should choose professional construction and glazing units. For prevention, the film can be safely applied to the glass surface so that if it explodes, the glass will not create small particles to shoot at people.

VLXD.org (TH)