Quality windshields in Edmonton, including repairs and replacements.

A good windshield will provide a clean, clear, and undistorted view. Windshields that have been manufactured with waves or distortions in them or that have become chipped, cracked, or pitted during their use can impair or obscure a driver’s vision at critical moments of driving. Distorted and poor quality windshields that contain waviness or weak points in them can lead to driver distractions, eye and mind fatigue, injury, and fatality.

Top quality windshields not only provide clear visibility but they are also accurately sized and shaped. This means that they are properly formed, heated, curved, cooled, and trimmed during the manufacturing process. This type of windshield will more effectively fit your vehicle’s contours, lending to a more superior fit and seal than windshields of lesser quality. A good fitting windshield in a vehicle not only provides the vehicle’s occupants with additional safety features but there is also a far less chance of future leaks, loose mouldings, trims, and the like commonly associated with windshields of lesser quality. A properly formed windshield also removes the need for the installer to use excessive and unsightly amounts of sealant during the installation process. Additionally, a properly formed windshield will also enhance your vehicle’s aerodynamic performance and reduce wind and road noise.

Top quality windshield manufacturers have a reputation for producing a longer lasting windshield because they want to keep their good name and image intact. When it comes to the hardness or softness of your windshield there are three main areas of concern. The first two areas of concern occur at the float glass level before the windshield manufacturing stage. The first concern is the type of raw materials and ratio of materials used to make the float glass the windshields will eventually be made from. The second area of concern is how that same glass was processed, annealed, and cooled down. The third area of concern occurs at the windshield manufacturing level at its bending, annealing, and cooling down stages. Alterations in any of these three areas as compared to the OEM processes for the very same windshield will lead to a harder or softer windshield being produced for wholesale to the general public.

Your windshield is constructed out of an outer layer of glass, a central layer of plastic (PVB), and an inner layer of glass. The PVB layer bonds or laminates the two glass layers together and prevents the glass from sharding into dangerous pieces in the event of breakage. The proper thickness of the PVB layer should be a minimum of .030 inches. A good quality windshield manufacturer will often exceed this minimum requirement with thicknesses of up to 1 millimetre or .038 of an inch. A properly laminated windshield will also contain tinctures that screen out 99% of the ultraviolet wavelength. The quality of the PVB plastic itself is also important, without which the windshield’s layers will, over time, begin to separate (de-laminate).

Windshields, like seat belts and air bags, form a very important part of the vehicle’s safety restraint system (SRS). When windshields become damaged they begin to lose their effectiveness in this area. The SRS is designed to keep vehicle occupants within the relative safety of the passenger compartment during accidents, head-on collisions, and roll-overs. In such accidents the vehicle’s passenger side air bag deploys firstly against the windshield before it bounces back to cushion any occupants. However, if the windshield is of a poor quality or it is improperly installed, it may not remain properly in place during such an accident. In such cases the full support of your vehicle’s SR System is compromised.

A vehicle’s windshield cushions the blow if a vehicle’s occupant or occupants come in contact with it during a crash. In such instances the glass layers may spider or break but the plastic PVB layer remains flexible enough to cushion their impact. This dual nature of a laminate windshield is far more forgiving to an occupant’s head and neck area than rigid, tempered, or solid plastic windshields would be.

Laminate windshields also keep the occupants within the relative safety of the passenger compartments of the vehicle. If, during an accident, the windshield were to become separated from the vehicle, the occupants could be ejected through the windshield opening and onto the roadway where the danger of striking or being struck by another vehicle or object is greatly enhanced.

Perhaps the least known characteristic of a good windshield, and closely related to this – a good windshield installation, is its and their contribution to the vehicle’s overall structural integrity. It is the intact windshield that provides much of the roof support during a rollover, preventing the roof from collapsing inwards upon any of the occupants inside.

A good quality windshield and installation will shield the vehicle’s occupants from exterior elements such as wind, rain, snow, air-borne debris, and bugs.

A good quality windshield will enhance the appearance and value of your vehicle.