What are the standard manufacturing tolerances for specialty architectural glass?

Bendheim’s vertically-integrated production facilities and skilled workers fully fabricate specialty architectural glass to the client’s specification, within the standard glass industry tolerances. In-house processes include: cutting, polishing, carving, back-painting, tempering, and several types of lamination. Learn about our capabilities here: bendheim.com/capabilities.

 

MANUFACTURING TOLERANCES

Cutting:

• For 1/8” (3 mm) to 1/4” (6 mm) thick glass = +/-1/16” (+/-1.5 mm)
• For 3/8” (10 mm) to 3/4” (19 mm) thick glass = +/-1/8” (+/-3 mm)
• For patterns & shapes of any glass thickness = +/-1/8” (+/-3 mm)

 

Edgework:

• Minimum thickness = 5/32” (4 mm)
• Minimum piece size = 2.5” x 2.5” (64 mm x 64 mm)
• Minimum Width to Height ratio of the piece = 1 to 10

 

Hole Drilling & Notching:

• Placement tolerances for 1/8” (3 mm) to 1/4” (6 mm) thick glass = +/-1/16” (+/-1.5 mm)
• Placement tolerances for 3/8” (10 mm) to 3/4” (19 mm) thick glass = +/-1/8” (+/-3 mm)
• Minimum radius for cut-outs and corners = the thickness of the glass
• Minimum diameter of holes for tempered glass only = 1/4” (6 mm) or the thickness of the glass, whichever is greater

 

Hole Location for Tempered Glass Only:

Glass Thickness	x-min.	d-min
5/32” (4 mm)	1/4” (6 mm)	1 1/16” (27 mm)
3/16” (5 mm)	5/16” (8 mm)	1 1/4” (32 mm)
1/4” (6 mm)	3/8” (10 mm)	1 5/8” (41 mm)
3/8” (10 mm)	9/16” (15 mm)	2 7/16” (37 mm)
1/2” (12 mm)	3/4” (19 mm)	3 1/4” (83 mm)
3/4” (19 mm)	1 1/2” (38 mm)	6 1/2” (165 mm)

 

Tempering:

• Min. thickness = 5/32” (4 mm)
• Max. size for 5/32” (4 mm) thickness = 20 sq. ft.
• Max. size for 3/16” (5 mm) or greater thickness = 69” x 145” (1.75 m x 3.68 m)
• Min. diagonal dimension = 9” (229 mm)

 

Lamination:

• Max. size = 72” x 130” (1.83 m x 3.3 m)
• Min. size = 1” x 1” (25 mm x 25 mm)

 

Fabrication Drawings:

When drawings are required to highlight specific fabrication details, please submit clear and detailed sketches, complete with all required information, i.e., hole & notch location, radius, etc. Every drawing submitted should be labeled with the corresponding Bendheim order number to ensure proper fabrication.

 

Custom Waterjet-Cut & Engraved Glass:

Please provide the required specialty font(s) and artwork in Windows TrueType format for fonts, vector files for graphics.

 

Custom Color Back-Painted Glass:

Color matching within 0.05 tolerance