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People spend most of their time at work, which means that for many the office is their second home. But it certainly doesn't feel like home, does it?

Have you ever been to a hockey game and wondered how the glass boards lining the rink withstood the constant impact of players and pucks slamming into them? Certainly, regular glass would shatter but the transparent material is different—it's made of tempered glass.

When you want to hire a tempered glass company for your commercial project, you should consider your options carefully so the finished product will turn out exactly how you imagined it—maybe even better! But first you need to know what to look for in a tempered glass company to guarantee you'll make the right choice.

For Scott Spector, architecture is a family affair. After all, as principal of the Spector Group, one of the top firms in New York City and Long Island, he can trace his lineage back to his dad, Michael Spector, who began the company more than a half a century ago. Today, Scott runs the Manhattan office, while his brother Marc handles the Long Island operation. The next generation is coming along too—as Scott’s son just graduated with an architecture degree.

Whether you ordered modular office walls, hotel counter tops or store fixtures, the glass manufacturer must complete certain steps, including cutting and shaping, edging, drilling and tempering, in a specific order to ensure that the finished product retains the highest quality.

When a glass fabricator puts glass through the tempering process, the material is first heated in a furnace and then rapidly cooled. As a result, tempered glass is five times stronger than regular or annealed glass. It can better handle thermal stress, which makes it harder to break. And even if tempered glass does break, the pieces aren't sharp and jagged but dull and round, so anyone near the shattered glass is far less likely to be harmed.

When architects, contractors and interior designs are looking to fill an interior space with glass elements, they usually want to use the clearest glass possible. They want transparent glass that lets people see right through it without any hindrances.

From retail shelves and display cases to office walls and railings, glass proves time and time again that it is the perfect addition to any interior space. By custom-ordering this translucent material, the result will turn out just as you imagined it—maybe even better.

Part of the fabrication process is custom glass cutting, which involves meticulously shaping the glass in order to ensure that the finished product will have the right dimensions and design.

Tempered glass, or toughened glass, has been heat-treated to make it stronger and safer to prevent injury in case if it ever breaks. In fact, tempered glass is four to five times stronger than annealed, or untreated, glass. In the event of breakage, tempered glass fractures into small, relatively harmless pieces rather than jagged shards. 

Whether for pastries or poultry, high-end jewelry or designer handbags, or even ancient artifacts, using a frameless glass display case, also known as a UV-bonded case, is the most transparent way to promote food and retail products as well as other items. It may seem like any old case or vitrine will do, but the seamlessness and beauty of frameless glass can take your presentation to a whole new level while a silicon material, for example, can prove to be problematic in terms of both appearance and strength.