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the WINDSHIELD DOCTORS @
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BI COUNTY WINDSHIELD REPAIR
631-929-6233
How Do We Repair A Chipped
or Fractured Windshield?
Read On!
It's hard to imagine how a stone chip in a windshield can be repaired until you understand how a windshield is constructed.
There are two main types of glass used in automobiles today. Tempered glass and laminated glass. Both are considered safety glass. Federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS205) requires all windshields
be laminated. Laminated safety glass is composed of a layer
of glass, a middle layer of tear resistant poly vinyl butyral (pvb)
plastic and another layer of glass all bonded and sandwiched
together. When something large hits a windshield both layers of
glass may break but the tear resistant middle layer of plastic will keep the
glass from showering razor sharp shards of glass on the occupants. The Ford
automobile company was the first company to introduce laminated safety glass in
automobiles in 1928. Prior to the introduction of laminated safety glass it was a very
common for people to be seriously hurt when even small rocks would break a
windshield. When something small like a pebble hits the windshield the outside layer of glass usually will break but the plastic middle layer absorbs much of the impact and the inner layer of glass rarely breaks. What you usually see is a small round circle or a star shaped fracture about the size of a dime or a quarter. The break is actually an air pocket between the plastic middle and the outside layer of glass. The repair process we employ involves injecting a ultra violet light curing resin into the air pockets of the fracture. When we have completely filled all the air pockets of the fracture with the repair resin we apply an ultra violet light to cure the resin. Every batch of glass is slightly different and every batch of resin is slightly different so a perfect match is rarely achieved but usually about 80% to 90% of the visual or cosmetic damage will disappear. There will always be some slight scaring left on even the best repairs. This is why the NWRA recommended practices does not suggest repairs in the critical acute area right in front of the driver unless there is minimal scaring. The main advantage of the repair is that the resin that we use has a bonding tensile strength of over 2500psi. This tremendous bonding power restores the structural integrity to the damaged windshield. The resin seals the break and keeps it from cracking out and spreading across the entire windshield.
THESE ARE TYPICALLY REPAIRABLE STONE CHIPS
