Chipped windshield, why it makes sense to fix it

The windshield of your car in the race is hit by a pebble. The glass chips, do not worry about it and after some time you open a crack that forces you to replace it. Have you ever? It seems to happen once every twenty years, to all motorists. It ‘a statistical average, of course, and as such masks considerable differences. When damage occurs for the first time, you discover that there are specialists in the repair of the windscreen, a market that is unbelievable in terms of volume of business that investment in research by specialized companies. But what do these “mechanical glass” and as appropriate to rely on their hands? To understand this we flew to England and visited the headquarters of the world market leader, the Group Belrone, better known in Italy under the brand Carglass.

QUESTION OF PREVENTION
“Each chip will turn a crack.” In the field of repair of windscreen, this statement is an axiom that becomes a recommendation for all drivers. Their insistence is understandable, because their business is doing prevention: to repair a little damage on the glass before the windshield is damaged irreparably.

HOW TO BREAK A WINDSHIELD

But first things first. It all begins with the “pebble” resting on the asphalt roads and highways as long as a car or a truck, do not lift into the air on its own wheels. If the vehicle that follows takes the debris on the windshield, its driver will feel a nice “toc” and, with the vehicle stationary, may notice a small chip on the crystal.

So far the natural dynamics of things. What you should do immediately after you repair this injury because, despite its innocuous appearance, reduces the resistance of the windshield up to 70% by creating the conditions for a subsequent rupture.

” It’s just a matter of time – explains a technical person – because the windshield of a car is continually subjected to physical stress, from the vibrations to temperature between the inside and the outside of the passenger from the point chipped start sooner or later a crack that will force us to replace the windshield. ” And to convince us that this is not just a marketing theory, we have brought in a wind tunnel, air-conditioned laboratory, speed it up, a condition that favors the breaking of a glass chipped: cold outside (-10 ° C and head wind at 70 km / h), hot inside the car (hot air directed at the highest temperature on the windshield).

Stopwatch in hand, after a little more than five minutes a crack one meter long materializes across the glass. And the epicenter is obviously our small chip. SURGERY OF CRYSTALS In fact, the glass can crack after a lot longer. If you are driving in areas with cold climates, rough roads or however you travel a few kilometers, it may take months or even years. But the risk of having to replace one day the windshield is chipped, and workshops have specialized avoid it in. First, because the technician looks more like a nurse laboratory: wearing blue gloves, goggles and fumbles specific tools taken from a briefcase call, needless to say, glass medic .

And then because it operates with a painstaking precision, alternating the application on the glass of a patented resin, with the use of tools to clean, then depressurize, dry with UV and polish the glass portion “made”.

In 30 minutes chipping disappears, both in appearance and to the touch, and the technician assures us that the structural strength of the windshield torn to be the original one. COST, OPPORTUNITY Of course not all chips are repairable because they must not exceed a certain diameter, but the cost-effectiveness compared to the replacement of the windshield is not discussed.

If you do not have an insurance policy “crystals”, companies charges about 80 dollars depending on the windshield, while the complete replacement of the windshield you pay from 400 to 1,000 dollars and the car must remain immobilized for 2 hours. The problem, if anything, is different: it is not permissible given that the average motorist will notice a small chip on the glass, you have to assume that the same driver to take the initiative to require repair prior.

Well, such a dose of scruple we imagine only in those who have already experienced the cost for replacing an entire windshield. Why is paying dearly for the first time that you learn that prevention is better than cure…