• Up to 5 times stronger than ordinary glass of the same thickness
• More resistant to sudden changes in the temperatures
• Much greater resistance to impact
• Better deflection properties
• Greater tolerance of repetitive load variations than ordinary glass before fracture occurs
• Much less likely to break
• If breakage occurs, the glass shatters into many hundreds of tiny pellets which are unlikely to cause any harm
• SWAS TUFF Toughened Glass is able to be manufactured in various tints or patterns.

SWAS TUFF Toughened Glass is strong, has enhanced thermal resistance, and breaks into small cuboid fragments rather than irregular shards of glass.

SWAS TUFF Toughened Glass is used when strength, thermal resistance and safety are important considerations, such as in microwavable see-through cookware. Other forms of tempered glass are Borosilicate glass for baking, ceramic-glass dinnerware and bakeware and stovetop pots. Within the home, tempered glass can be found in display case windows, shower doors, glass patio doors, glass dinnerware and drinking glasses. In commercial structures, tempered glass is used for unframed assemblies such as frameless doors, structurally loaded applications and any that would be dangerous in the case of a human impact.

SWAS TUFF Toughened Glass is made from annealed glass via a thermal tempering process. The glass is placed onto a roller table, taking it through a furnace that heats it to above its annealing point of 600 °C. The glass is then rapidly cooled with forced draughts of air while the inner portion of the glass remains free to flow for a short time. The process makes the glass 4 to 6 times stronger than annealed glass. SWAS TUFF Toughened Glass is safer because when broken the pieces reduce to numerous granules fragments with no large jagged ends. SWAS TUFF recognizes that key to producing good quality SWAS TUFF Toughened Glass is using latest technology. It has acquired the best horizontal tempering technology from M/s Saint Gobain Sewa (France) and it has the capacity to temper LOW-E glass also. SWAS TUFF represents consistent qualityof glass with negligible distortion. Tempered glass is used in most modern facade, where glass strength is required.

The greater contraction of the inner layer induces compressive stresses in the surface of the glass balanced by tensile stresses in the body of the glass. This compressive stress on the surface of the glass is typically as high as 50 MPa. It is this compressive stress that gives the SWAS TUFF Toughened Glass an increased strength. This is because any surface flaws tend to be pressed closed by the retained compressive forces, while the core layer remains relatively free of the defects which could cause a crack to begin. However, the SWAS TUFF Toughened Glass surface is not as hard as annealed glass and is slightly more susceptible to scratching. To prevent this, SWAS TUFF Toughened Glass manufacturers apply various coatings and/or laminates to the surface of the glass. Though the underlying mechanism was not known at the time, the effects of "tempering" glass have been known for centuries. In the 1640s, Prince Rupert of Bavaria brought the discovery of what are now known as "Prince Rupert's Drops" to the attention of the King. These are teardrop shaped bits of glass which are produced by allowing a molten drop of glass to fall into a bucket of water, thereby rapidly cooling it. The teardrops were often used by the King as a practical joke.