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Information about Windshield

This article is about glass used on vehicles. For the microphone wind protecting accessory, see microphone.


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Panoramic (wrap-around) windshield on a 1959 Edsel Corsair.


The windshield (also known as the windscreen) of an aircraft, automobile, bus, motorcycle, or tram is the front window. Modern windshields are generally made of laminated safety glass, which consists of two (typically) curved sheets of glass with a plastic layer laminated between them for safety, and are glued into the window frame.

Motorcycle windscreens are often made of high-impact acrylic plastic. As the name implies, their main function is to shield the driver from the wind, though they do not do so as totally as those of a car.

Usage

In daily use, windshields mainly protect the vehicle's occupants from wind, temperature extremes, and flying debris such as dust, insects, and rocks, as well as providing an aerodynamically formed window towards the front. UV Coating may be applied to screen out harmful ultraviolet light.

Safety

Early windscreens were made of ordinary window glass, but that could lead to serious injuries in the event of a crash. They were replaced with windshields made of toughened glass and were fitted in the frame using a rubber or neoprene seal. The hardened glass shattered into many mostly harmless fragments when the windscreen broke. These windshields, however, could shatter from a simple stone chip. Especially in police cars this was seen as a problem and it led to the development of the laminated glass windows most cars use. However, there have been some concern over the risk of decapitation and some cars instead use a windscreen of lexan.
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Split and raked windshield on a 1952 DeSoto. Note the panes of glass are flat.


The modern, glued-in screens contribute to the vehicle's rigidity, but the main forcing in innovating the windshield has historically been the need to prevent injury from sharp glass fragments. Modern windshields, now almost universally required in all nations, do not fragment, but tend to stay in one piece even if broken, except if pierced locally by a strong force. Properly installed automobile windshields are also essential to safety; along with the roof of the car, they provide protection in the case of a roll-over accident in the vehicle.

Other aspects

In many places, laws restrict the use of heavily tinted glass in vehicle windshields; generally, laws specify the maximum level of tint permitted. Some vehicles have noticeably more tint in the uppermost part of the windshield of motor vehicles that blocks glare from the sun.

In aircraft windscreens, a current is applied through a conducting layer of tin(IV) oxide to generate heat to prevent icing. A similar system for automobile windshields, introduced on Ford vehicles as "Quickclear" in Europe ("InstaClear" in North America) in the 1980s, uses very thin heating wires or conductive-film layer embedded between the two laminations.

Using thermal glass has one downside: it prevents some navigation systems from functioning correctly, as the embedded metal jams the satellite signal. This can be resolved by using an external antenna for the navigation system.

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Automobile windshield displaying "spiderweb" cracking typical of laminated safety glass.

Terminology

The term windshield is used generally throughout North America, although windscreen is often used for motorcycles and similar vehicles. The term windscreen is the usual term in the UK and Australia/New Zealand for all vehicles. In Japanese English, it is called "front glass".

In the USA, windscreen refers to the mesh or foam screen placed over a microphone to minimize wind noise, while a windshield refers to the front window of a car. In the UK, the meaning of these terms is reversed.

Today’s windshields are a safety device just like seat belts and air bags. The installation of the auto glass is done with an automotive grade urethane designed specifically for automobiles. The adhesive creates a molecular bond between the glass and the vehicle. If the adhesive bond fails at any point on the glass it can reduce the effectiveness of the air bag and substantially compromise the structural integrity of the roof. (Raymond Clough)

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Brookland aeroscreen on a 1931 Austin Seven Sports.


Auto windscreens less than 20 cm (8 inches) in height are sometimes known as aeroscreens since they only deflect the wind. The twin aeroscreen setup (often called Brooklands) was popular among older sports and modern cars in vintage style.

A wiperless windshield is a windshield that uses a mechanism other than wipers to remove snow and rain from the windshield. The concept car Acura TL features a wiperless windshield using a series of jet nozzles in the cowl to blow pressurized air onto the windshield.

Stone chip and crack damage

Many types of stone damage can be successfully repaired. Bullseyes, cracks, starbreaks or a combination of all three, can be repaired without removing the screen, eliminating the risk of leaking or bonding problems sometimes associated with replacement.

See also

External links

microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or mic (both IPA pronunciation: [maɪk]), is an acoustic to electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal.
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aircraft is a vehicle which is able to fly through the air (or through any other atmosphere). All the human activity which surrounds aircraft is called aviation. (Most rocket vehicles are not aircraft because they are not supported by the surrounding air).
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automobile (from Greek auto, self and Latin mobile moving, a vehicle that moves itself rather than being moved by another vehicle or animal) or motor car (usually shortened to just car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor.
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bus is a large road vehicle designed to carry numerous passengers in addition to the driver and sometimes a conductor. The name is a neologic version of the Latin omnibus, which means "transport for everyone.
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MotorCycle
(1993) BibleLand
(1994)

MotorCycle is the title of a 1993 album by rock band Daniel Amos, released on BAI Records. The album was dedicated to the memory of songwriter Mark Heard.
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tram, tramcar, trolley, trolley car, or streetcar is a railborne vehicle, lighter than a train, designed for the transport of passengers (and/or, very occasionally, freight) within, close to, or between villages, towns and/or cities, primarily on streets.
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window is an opening in an otherwise solid and opaque surface that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material.
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Laminated glass is a type of safety glass that holds together when . In the event of breaking, it is held in place by an interlayer, typically of polyvinyl butyral (PVB), between its two or more layers of glass.
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Glass is a noncrystalline material that can maintain indefinitely, if left undisturbed, its overall form and amorphous microstructure at a temperature below its glass transition temperature.
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Plastic is the general term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic polymerization products. They are composed of organic condensation or addition polymers and may contain other substances to improve performance or economics.
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laminate is a material constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together. The process of creating a laminate is lamination, which in common parlance refers to sandwiching something between layers of plastic and sealing them with heat and/or pressure, usually
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Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or poly (methyl 2-methylpropanoate) is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. This thermoplastic and transparent plastic is sold by the tradenames Plexiglas, Limacryl, R-Cast, Perspex, Plazcryl
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WIND (SOLARWIND) was a NASA spacecraft launched on November 1, 1994. It was deployed to study radio and plasma that occur in solar wind, in the Earth's magnetosphere. The spacecraft's original mission was to orbit the Sun at the L1
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trillion fold).]]

Temperature is a physical property of a system that underlies the common notions of hot and cold; something that is hotter generally has the greater temperature. Temperature is one of the principal parameters of thermodynamics.
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Debris (French, pronounced (IPA) di'bri) is a word used to describe the remains of something that has been otherwise destroyed.

Depending on context, debris can refer to a number of different things.
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Dust is a general name for minute solid particles with diameters less than 500 micrometers. On Earth, dust occurs in the atmosphere from various sources; soil dust lifted up by wind, volcanic eruptions, and pollution are some examples.
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Insecta
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders
Subclass Apterygota
* Archaeognatha (bristletails)
* Thysanura (silverfish)
Subclass Pterygota
* Infraclass Paleoptera (Probably paraphyletic)

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Balanced Rock stands in Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, CO]] A rock is a naturally occurring aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids. The Earth's lithosphere is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
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For the Daft Punk song, see .


Aerodynamics (shaping of objects that affect the flow of air or gas) is a branch of fluid dynamics concerned with the study of forces generated on a body in a flow.
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UV coating is the name given to various processes and coverings that utilize or protect against ultraviolet radiation.

Ultra-violet coating of paper

Ultra-violet coating is a glossy coating applied over ink printed on paper and dried by exposure to UV radiation.
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Ultraviolet (UV) light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than soft X-rays. It is so named because the spectrum starts with wavelengths slightly shorter than the wavelengths humans identify as the color violet
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Toughened glass or tempered glass is a type of glass that has increased strength and will usually shatter into small fragments when broken.

Properties

Toughened glass is strong, has enhanced thermal resistance, and breaks into small cuboid fragments rather than
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Natural rubber is an elastic hydrocarbon polymer that naturally occurs as a milky colloidal suspension, or latex, in the sap of some plants. It can also be synthesized. The entropy model of rubber was developed in 1934 by Werner Kuhn.
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Neoprene is the DuPont Performance Elastomers trade name for a family of synthetic rubbers based on polychloroprene (polymer form of Chloroprene). Neoprene was invented by DuPont scientists after Dr. Elmer K. Bolton of DuPont laboratories attended a lecture by Fr.
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A mechanical seal is a device which helps join systems or mechanisms together by preventing leakage (e.g., in a plumbing system), containing pressure, or excluding contamination.
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Laminated glass is a type of safety glass that holds together when . In the event of breaking, it is held in place by an interlayer, typically of polyvinyl butyral (PVB), between its two or more layers of glass.
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LEXAN is a registered trademark for General Electric's brand of highly durable polycarbonate resin thermoplastic intended to replace glass where the need for strength justifies its higher cost.
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Window film, also called window tint, is transparent plastic film or metallic laminate which is applied to glass windows. It is available in many different compositions with varying effects on the optical and mechanical properties of the underlying glass.
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The Sun

Observation data
Mean distance
from Earth 1.4961011 m
(8.31 min at light speed)
Visual brightness (V) −26.74m [1]
Absolute magnitude 4.
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