NGA Forms Task Group to Develop Heat Soaking Standard for Tempered Glass

GlassBase

Jul 13, 2026 2 - 3 min. read

Photo by pepe nero on Unsplash

The National Glass Association (NGA) has launched a task group to develop an industry standard for heat soaking tempered glass, according to a report from the association's Fabricating Committee meeting at the NGA Glass Fabricator Conference (GFAB) in Chicago in June. The move addresses a long-standing gap in the industry: fabricators currently rely on varying internal practices for heat soaking, a process used to reduce the risk of spontaneous glass breakage after installation.

Heat soaking is a supplementary heat treatment applied to tempered glass. It involves reheating the glass to a controlled temperature for a set period to trigger the fracture of unstable nickel sulfide inclusions before the glass ships to a jobsite. Without heat soaking, those inclusions can expand over time and cause tempered glass to break spontaneously, sometimes years after installation.

The heat soaking task group emerged from a broader session on tempering topics at the Fabricating Committee meeting. More than 100 glass industry technical leaders attended the Glass Conference track at GFAB, which included committee meetings and educational sessions organized by NGA's Fabricating, Forming and Advocacy Committees.

D.J. Weil of Trulite Glass & Aluminum Solutions joined the Fabricating Committee as the new Tempering Liaison and will help guide the standard's development. Alongside the heat soaking initiative, the committee's tempering-related work includes a task group preparing proposed building code changes for exterior lites ahead of the next code development cycle, an ad hoc group reviewing measurement procedures for materials used in photovoltaic modules, and industry participation in a new ASTM task group examining see-through distortion in glass.

A heat soaking standard would give fabricators, glaziers and specifiers a consistent, industry-wide benchmark for a process that currently varies by supplier. Building owners and architects who specify tempered glass for facades, storefronts and other applications where post-installation breakage carries safety and liability concerns stand to benefit most from a uniform protocol. The task group's work is in its early stages, and NGA has not released a timeline for when a draft standard might be available for industry review.

A published standard would likely influence purchasing specifications, warranty terms and testing protocols across the tempered glass supply chain, particularly for projects where glass failure poses elevated safety risk. NGA has not yet indicated when the task group expects to circulate a draft for public comment.