August 2006

Heart
 of Glass

With trucks having to avoid downtime, the repair and replacement of windscreens should be treated with the same urgency as other critical vehicle components such as tyres or engines, says PG Glass' marketing director, Sean Harrison.

Today's windscreen is an integral part of any and all vehicles. The windscreen provides structural support to the body of the vehicle, and in the event of an accident, a cracked windscreen can contribute to the weakening of the chassis and the driver compartment. Many drivers and fleet operators neglect cracked or chipped windscreens due to the potential time required to replace or repair them. A small chip left alone will develop into a crack that cannot be repaired. Chips caused by stone damage can be repaired successfully so long as the crack is no larger than 10mm situated in the driver's key vision area (also known as the wiper sweep). Any other area of the windscreen is repairable so long as the crack does not exceed 40mm. In that case, the windscreen must be replaced.

A repaired windscreen restores the strength to the damaged glass as well as its optical and cosmetic appearance. Repairs are permanent and the vehicle can be washed and driven immediately. Tinted windscreens or shaded areas suffer no loss of colour or deviation.

PG Glass has access to the world's leading glass repair technology in Glass Medic(r). PG repairs are guaranteed for the duration of the windscreen's life for leaks, delaminating and whistling. PG's technicians are trained to assess any kind of damage to a windscreen and carry out the repair at all of their 128 outlets nationwide or at the vehicle's location. This ensures that the truck is able to return to the road with a minimum of downtime and cost to the vehicle owner.