Glass can be toughened up a bit by tempering, at a cost. It can be toughened up a lot by other methods up to being made bulletproof at costs both financial and in terms of compromises to clarity and adding a lot of thickness.
The question is whether ‘transparent wood’ can compete with glass in performance and cost.
“Glass” is not all the same. Gorilla glass is many times stronger than a window pane. Aluminum oxide crystals are called “glass” when they’re made to shape. Soda-lime glass is still called “glass”. “Glass” is an exceedingly poor metric to compare anything to, even other glass.
Given that industry likes deceptive trade names- ‘plexiglas’ for instance- transparent wood will probably be known as ‘lignoglass’ or some such nonsense.
Glass can be toughened up a bit by tempering, at a cost. It can be toughened up a lot by other methods up to being made bulletproof at costs both financial and in terms of compromises to clarity and adding a lot of thickness.
The question is whether ‘transparent wood’ can compete with glass in performance and cost.
“Glass” is not all the same. Gorilla glass is many times stronger than a window pane. Aluminum oxide crystals are called “glass” when they’re made to shape. Soda-lime glass is still called “glass”. “Glass” is an exceedingly poor metric to compare anything to, even other glass.
I don’t want my glass to be made from gorillas.
Yeah! Gorillas are endangered!
Given that industry likes deceptive trade names- ‘plexiglas’ for instance- transparent wood will probably be known as ‘lignoglass’ or some such nonsense.