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Spontaneous exploding table

Bart

Bart

pfm Member
We were startled by a loud explosion coming from our seldom used dining cum kids playroom this afternoon. I thought someone must have pushed a ladder through one of the windows and when I saw the glass all over the floor, window sills and toys I still thought it was a window, then I noticed the glass table top was missing and realised what had exploded. Apparently it happens occasionally. Mercifully no-one was in there at the time though my two grandsons had been playing in there earlier. It was not a cheap table and came from JL or M&S, 5 or 6 years ago. Something to bear in mind if your in the market for a table!

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Looks like it shattered and dropped rather than being all over the room. Weird. You might think this would happen with windows that are more common by some degree.
 
That’s interesting. A painting jumped off the wall this evening, for no apparent reason. It’s been there for a couple of years.
There’s a rational explanation.
 
Nero said:
That’s interesting. A painting jumped off the wall this evening, for no apparent reason. It’s been there for a couple of years.
There’s a rational explanation.
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have you got a poltergeist? maybe you need to hire an exorcist before you buy a new table for the OP. you ever found furniture moving by itself?
 
Glad no one was hurt. I had a shower enclosure spontaneously explode in a flat of mine. The tenant came home to find glass everywhere. Thank God nobody was there. I spoke to the manufacturer (Merlyn) who said it can and does happen. It was 6 years old and they sent me a new enclosure free of charge. Fantastic customer service but somewhat unnerving!
 
MUTTY1 said:
Looks like it shattered and dropped rather than being all over the room. Weird. You might think this would happen with windows that are more common by some degree.
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As far as I now know it does happen with windows.
 
Bart said:
As far as I now know it does happen with windows.
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It happened to my next door neighbour's sliding patio door recently. The outer pane of the double glazed unit exploded leaving the inner pane intact. We heard it go while they were out and wondered what it was. Apparently the tempering process can lead to internal stress, and one day it suddenly goes. Could have been something to do with the recent hot weather? Apparently even a slight knock or small scratch can cause it to shatter after the event.
 
Wow, a lucky escape.

We had it happen with the double glass door of a JL oven when it was on, and we were sat in the kitchen. Thankfully, the outer glass was ok, so no harm done, but there was no pizza for us that evening.
 
That is bizarre. I had no idea it was a thing. I can kind of understand it with windows due to temperature changes or even house movement/subsidence, but a table?
 
Tony L said:
That is bizarre. I had no idea it was a thing. I can kind of understand it with windows due to temperature changes or even house movement/subsidence, but a table?
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A table under negligible stress to boot, only a few kiddies’ books and bits of paper on it at the time.
 
I had it happen to a car window once. Also an old Esso glass at my parent's place, my mum just touched it and bang. It's to do with the rapid cooling setting up internal stresses and the slightest shock of thermal event can trigger it. It's still safer than non toughened glass though.
 
Toughened-glass sheet, suddenly lets-go of the incorporated strain energy to explosive effect, is very definitely a Thing; at a rate around about 1 in 1000 sq.m.

It has zero to do with loading, impact (at all), nor anything else;

Fundamentally the reason it went bang, is called a nickel-sulphide inclusion. These grow with time, and act to grow a notch into a sheet of glass that has immense stored Strain energy (that's how toughened glass works) Once the crystal gets big enough that it meets the Gritffith crack criterion - the stored strain energy in the whole toughened glass sheet collapses; Bang; and - it is quite the bang.

I could write pages on it, and I've seen far worse 1st hand.
 
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