The Importance of the Vehicle-To-Windshield Bond When Getting a Replacement Windshield

The windshield and some auto glass are very important safety aspects of a car, truck or RV.

Windshields and auto glass are an essential safety device, just like the seat belts and air bags. In the unlikely event of an accident one's safety depends on the quality of the windshield repair installation especially.

Windshield replacement must have a very high strength bond to provide a multitude of safety features. The bond assists the vehicle's occupant compartment from crushing in a rollover accident. The middle layer aids in preventing ejection, and impact onto hard surfaces, from the vehicle by slowing the occupant's body inertia (especially when there are no air bags or the occupants do not wear their seat belts) -making the bond essential to be at several hundreds of pounds per square inch in strength to the vehicle. The windshield itself acts as a backboard for the airbags absorbing much of the impact. Correctly installed auto glass, especially windshield replacement, further provides structural rigidity making for a more stable vehicle when trying to avoid accidents on some cars.

Windshield bonding glues are called urethane adhesives, but not all urethane is the same. There are many urethane glues made by many different manufacturers. The strength of each urethane is different and can be as low as a couple hundred psi of strength to over a thousand psi of strength. Also there are glues called high modulus / low conductive urethane glue which must be used on some cars. High modulus has even more strength to its elasticity, providing more structural rigidity for cars that need it.

Did you know that many new cars on the road today have poorly installed windshields from the factory!!!

After removing OEM factory installed windshields, we have found many vehicle manufacturers out there which improperly install auto glass. The glue used to secure a windshield provides hundreds of pounds per square inch of strength. However in these cases, the glue used by the manufacturer to secure the windshield was applied to paint that was not sticking to the primer well enough causing the windshield-to-vehicle bond to be weak, and dangerous. This puts lives at risk. The best way to install a windshield is to apply glue to unpainted primer from factory, like many of the higher end cars such as Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, etc.

The importance of a properly installed windshield cannot be over-stated. Your windshield is an important part of the structural integrity of your vehicle. It is important to have your windshield installed by a professional installer which uses a good bonding system correctly.

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards do not regulate the repair and replacement of windshields in the United States. They do set standards that are supposed to be followed for manufacturers and replacement repairs but it is up to the company you choose to follow and insure those standards are met. There are some companies and not for profits that do also set standards such as the Auto Glass Replacement Safety Standards Council (AGRSS), I-Car and the National Glass association (NGA).