Windshield Intrusion E300DT 98
 

I recently had an incident with airborn ice. Does anyone know the force required to penetrate the windshield. Also, what is the composition of the windshield. Should it disintegrate into powder?

Will another picture capture your interest?

colinc

What a bummer! The windshield is made of two pieces of glass laminated together with an thin material between to hold together. The glass is designed to break into small pieces.

If you were moving when the ice hit, the ice would not have to be big, just hard.

As far as what force is required it would depend on the weight of the ice, the size of the piece and your speed. As speed increases the weight of the ice becomes less significant.

Haasman

The sheet of ice, about 2'x3'x3" lifted off of the roof of an oncoming tractor trailer. My speed was about 60, his at least 40. I shudder to do the math. The force of the impact drove glass all the way to thunk, via the third brake light conduit? Superior Mercedes engineering allowed me to bring the car to a safe stop, without additional impact.

The damage is totally fixable. Please clean the snow off your roofs, folks.

Did you have your hood ornament ripped off or is it a low profile one? Did the ice dent the hood too or is that a reflection of the windshield?

That's scary! I'm glad you're OK.

OMG! :eek:
Something like that would scare the living cr@p out of most people.
I once was hit by a cannonball-sized rock that made my windshield look just like that. -It took a minute or so to get the color back to my face..

I have often seen big -and thick sheets of ice slide off the roof of tractor trailers and shatter into thousands of pieces all over the highway. But luckily i have never been hit. -Yet!

THIS is quite related.

Freestyler

Thanks to all. Yes, the hood took a big impact also. Perhaps it took the direct hit and the windshield was secondary? As far as the hood ornament, some kids in the Bronx helped me with that modification a few months ago. Didn't replace it because I figured next time they would damage the paint in the process.

I wonder what would have happened in this tank (Volvo).