Toughened, safety glass or tempered glass is strong and has enhanced heat resistance making it ideal for the manufacture of glass tables and other furniture.

 When fully tempered glass breaks, the glass fractures into small, relatively harmless fragments or cuboids. This phenomenon is called "dicing," and markedly reduces the likelihood of injury to people as there are no jagged edges or sharp shards of glass.

Toughened glass is made using two processes. First is the annealing process. This is a process of heating and then slowly cooling the glass to increase it’s durability.

The second stage is via a thermal tempering process. The glass is placed onto a roller table, taking it through a furnace that heats it to above its annealing point of 600 °C.

The glass is then rapidly cooled with forced draughts of air while the inner portion of the glass remains free to flow for a short time.

Toughened glass is typically four to six times the strength of annealed glass and withstands heating in microwave ovens.

Toughened glass is not ‘unbreakable’ though, and obvious care should be taken to avoid large heavy objects being dropped onto it.