The New Ford

Northland Age, Volume 28, Issue 58, 18 July 1928, Page 7

The New Ford

To give an idea of how engineers and safety experts regard Triplex unshatterable glass for motor car windshields, it is interesting to note the result of a recent poll in America of safety councils, engineers, automobile writers and impartial students of modern trends in the motor industry. The result of the voting was that 41 per cent were of the opinion that non-shatterable glass was the most essential pending change in the modern car. Twenty one per cent voted for automatic chassis lubrication, whilst the balance voted for other general improvements. Triplex, which we notice is standard on the new Ford car windshields, is a non-shatterable clear vision glass with no wires in its structure, and consists briefly of two outside layers of glass with a middle binding layer of plastic. The three are welded together under heat and pressure, and the product passes through seventeen different operations before it is passed as Triplex. During the war, aviators were protected by goggles and windshields made of Triplex glass, whilst the glass for submarines and safety screens for high speed submarine chasers was also of this same material.

Flying glass, usually from windshields, is responsible for 65 per cent of all injuries incurred in automobile accidents-in America. This unshatterable glass, which by actual test is' 56 per cent stronger than plate glass of equal thickness, will not do more than crack. There are no flying splinters or jagged edges. Although flexible under compact, it cannot be cut with a diamond.