Comprehensive Guide to Glass Types

Glass is a common item in daily life, most frequently seen in windows and doors. With technological advancements, the variety of glass has grown increasingly diverse. Understanding different types of glass is essential. Glass lid manufacturers introduce 24 common types of glass encountered in everyday life.
1. Tempered Glass
Tempered glass is produced by heating glass to near its softening temperature (600–650°C) and then rapidly cooling it or treating it chemically. It exhibits excellent mechanical properties and thermal shock resistance.
After undergoing thermal treatment in a tempering furnace, the structural properties of the original glass sheet are enhanced, increasing its strength by 3 to 5 times. This allows it to withstand external impacts or temperature changes without shattering. Even if broken, the glass fragments into small, blunt-edged particles resembling a honeycomb pattern, minimizing the risk of injury and providing inherent safety.
2. Crystal Glass
This glass is cast using glass beads within refractory molds. The glass beads, primarily composed of silica and various additives, are melted and crystallized by flame after blending. Its surface is smooth, featuring intricate filamentary patterns or natural stone-like decorative motifs. It exhibits excellent strength, chemical stability, and resistance to atmospheric corrosion.
3. Mirror Glass
Also known as polished glass, it is produced by polishing flat glass. Available in single-sided or double-sided polished versions, its surface is flat, smooth, and glossy. Light transmittance exceeds 84%, with thickness ranging from 4–6mm.
4. Heat-Bent Glass
Sheet glass is heated in a bending furnace and shaped against a mold. Two sheets of heat-bent glass can be further laminated to form heat-bent laminated glass.
5. Glass Block
Also known as extra-thick glass, it comes in hollow and solid varieties. Solid glass blocks are mechanically pressed, while hollow glass blocks are formed using box molds. Two glass panels are fused together under heat, with the hollow block filled with dry air. After annealing, the side seams are sealed.
6. Glazed Glass
Glazed glass involves coating the glass surface with a layer of colored, easily fusible glaze. The glass is heated until the glaze melts, fusing it firmly to the glass substrate. It undergoes annealing or tempering treatment. It possesses excellent chemical stability and decorative properties, making it suitable for exterior wall cladding in buildings.
7. Glass Mosaic Tiles
These tiles are manufactured using glass as the base material or by grinding raw glass into fine powder and adding fluoride etching agents, oxidizing agents, and other additives. They are produced via sintering or rolling processes. They are lightweight, corrosion-resistant, and colorfast.
8. Colored Glass Facing Tiles
These tiles, made from thick glass, offer advantages such as light weight, high strength, and excellent thermal stability. They feature diverse patterns and colors, dazzling brilliance, and easy installation.
9. Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP)
Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (also known as Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic, internationally abbreviated as GFRP or FRP) is a versatile composite material with numerous varieties and unique properties. It is a functional new material produced by combining synthetic resin with glass fiber through composite processes. FRP materials are lightweight, possess high specific strength, excellent corrosion resistance, superior electrical insulation, slow heat transfer, good thermal insulation, high resistance to instantaneous extreme temperatures, and are easily colored while allowing electromagnetic wave transmission.
10. Insulated Glass
Insulated glass consists of two or more layers of ordinary flat glass. The edges are sealed using high-strength, high-airtightness composite adhesives, bonding the glass panes with sealing strips and glazing beads. The cavity is filled with dry gas, and desiccant is placed within the frame to maintain air dryness between the glass layers.
11. Laminated Glass
Laminated glass consists of two or more sheets of float glass bonded together with one or more layers of PVB (polyvinyl butyral) through a process of high-pressure and heat treatment in equipment like a laminating oven. Due to the excellent impact resistance and bonding properties of this adhesive material, when the glass is impacted and breaks, the PVB interlayer between the two sheets of ordinary glass prevents the formation of sharp shards that could cause injury, unlike ordinary broken glass. Simultaneously, the sound insulation and sunlight control properties of its PVB interlayer make it an energy-efficient, environmentally friendly new building material.
Laminated glass not only blocks 1000–2000 Hz transmission noise that penetrates ordinary glass but also blocks over 99% of ultraviolet rays and absorbs heat from the infrared spectrum.
12. Float Glass
The float production process occurs in a tin bath filled with protective gas. Molten glass continuously flows from the tank furnace and floats on the surface of denser tin bath. Under the combined effects of gravity and surface tension, the glass spreads and levels on the tin surface, forming smooth upper and lower surfaces. After hardening and cooling, it is drawn onto the transfer roller table. The rotating rollers pull the glass ribbon out of the tin bath into the annealing furnace.

13. Solar Control Glass
Solar control glass typically features one or more layers of metal or metal compound coatings—such as chromium, titanium, or stainless steel—applied to its surface. This creates a rich color palette while providing appropriate visible light transmittance, high infrared reflectance, and strong ultraviolet absorption. Consequently, it is also known as solar control glass and is primarily used in buildings and curtain walls.
14. U-Shaped Glass
U-shaped glass (also known as channel glass) is a new type of energy-efficient wall profile glass for buildings. Manufactured from crushed glass and quartz sand, it offers excellent light transmission, thermal insulation, soundproofing, high mechanical strength, anti-aging properties, and light resistance. Its strip-like profile exudes a contemporary aesthetic with sleek, flowing lines and distinctive decorative appeal. Installation is straightforward, and overall costs are lower. Compared to conventional flat steel-framed glass structures, it reduces expenses by 20%-40%, cuts labor by 30%-50%, and conserves glass and metal consumption.
15. Wire-Reinforced Fire-Resistant Glass
Wire-reinforced fire-resistant glass is a composite glass formed by embedding metal wires or mesh within the interlayer of organic film or inorganic adhesive between two glass panes. The addition of wires or mesh not only enhances the overall impact resistance of the fire-resistant glass but also enables integration with electric heating and safety alarm systems for multifunctional applications. The sole drawback of this fire-resistant glass is its relatively poor light transmission.
16. Flat Glass
Flat glass is produced by melting raw materials—quartz sandstone powder, silica sand, potash, soda ash, and mirabilite—in specific proportions within a high-temperature furnace. This yields transparent, colorless flat glass. As a traditional product, it primarily serves windows and doors for light transmission, wind protection, and thermal insulation. It must be colorless with high transparency, a smooth, flat surface, and no defects.
17. Low-E Glass
Low-emissivity glass features a thin film coating on its surface composed of multiple layers of metals (such as silver, copper, or tin) or their compounds. This coating exhibits high visible light transmittance while strongly reflecting infrared radiation, providing excellent thermal insulation. Primarily used in buildings and transportation vehicles like automobiles and ships, its coating has relatively low strength and is typically incorporated into insulated glass units.
18. Coated Glass
Coated glass involves applying one or more layers of metal, alloy, or metal compound films onto the glass surface to alter its optical properties and meet specific requirements.
19. Fire-Rated Insulated Glass
Fire-rated insulated glass represents a new advancement in fire-resistant glass technology. It integrates sound insulation, noise reduction, thermal insulation, and fire resistance into a single glass product. Based on the manufacturing process of insulated glass, a layer of metal salt is applied to the glass substrate on the side likely to be exposed to fire or flames. After drying at specific temperatures and humidity levels, it is processed into various shapes for use in insulated fire-resistant doors, windows, partitions, firewalls, and fire lanes.
20. Laminated Fire-Resistant Glass
Laminated fire-resistant glass is a transparent composite product widely available and highly popular in domestic and international markets. It consists of two or more layers of flat glass bonded together with a transparent fire-resistant adhesive. Its fire resistance largely depends on the quality of this adhesive. Fire-resistant adhesives are generally classified into two major categories: inorganic materials (sodium silicate, also known as water glass) and organic materials (acrylamide and flame retardants, etc.).
21. Wired Glass
Wired glass, also known as safety glass, is manufactured by heating ordinary flat glass to a red-hot softened state and then pressing preheated iron wire or wire mesh into the center of the glass.
22. Patterned Glass
Patterned glass, also known as embossed or rolled glass, is primarily used in doors, windows, interior partitions, and bathrooms. Its surface features decorative patterns that allow light transmission while blocking visibility, offering translucency with privacy. This provides excellent decorative effects.
23. Safety Glass
Safety glass refers to laminated glass, tempered glass, explosion-proof glass, and other types meeting national standards, as well as insulated glass units manufactured from these materials.

24. Electrochromic Glass
Smart electrochromic glass differs from ordinary glass in its ability to adjust transparency. Technically defined, smart electrochromic glass is a type of specialty architectural glass, also known as an electrochromic light valve. It represents a revolutionary shift from the uniform light transmission of conventional glass, emerging as an inevitable product of glass deep processing advancing toward high technology, electronics, and intelligence.