What do the labels on your car’s windows mean?

You might have noticed it every time you’ve come across your car, the different labels you see on your windows actually carry meaning. It may not be as important as you think, but it does hold some useful information, plus, killing your curiosity could be fun sometimes. Some labels are pretty straightforward while some are pretty difficult to analyze. That said, here’s a simple guide for you to read and understand the different things that are printed on your car’s window.

Starting with the most basic print of all, the car brand. Depending on the manufacturer, some vehicles have it, some don’t. You can usually find this on the bottom portion of your window, it is by far the most noticeable print among the entire cluster.

Next up, is the glass manufacturer stamp. Unlike the car brand print, the automotive glass manufacturer stamp can be sighted on every modern car nowadays. Some examples of brands include Nippon which is a Japanese-based glass manufacturer, Xinyi Glass from China, and Schott from Germany.

Your car’s window was built meticulously in order to meet the safety standards imposed by other countries. Near the automotive glass, the manufacturer stamp is the safety standard label which denotes the country where it was manufactured. It also means that your car’s glass has solely conformed to the safety standards of that country. Here are the different safety standard labels for you to take note off:

• CCC - China
• KC - Korea
• TISI - Thailand
• DOT - USA
• SABS - South Africa
• JIS - Japan
• AS - Australia
• S - New Zealand
• BS - British
• Inmetro - Brazil

European standards, however, have a different labeling system, with E being its universal letter while each number pertains to its respective country. Also, do take note that even Malaysia (E52) and Thailand (E53) use the E designation which can sometimes be confusing.  

• E1 - Germany
• E2 - France
• E3 - Italy
• E4 - Netherlands
• E5 - Sweden
• E6 - Belgium
• E7 - Hungary
• E8 - Czech Republic
• E9 - Spain
• E10 - Serbia

The durability and thickness of your car’s window are usually denoted in roman numeral format. Once it gets higher, the thicker the layer it becomes. Kindly refer to the list below:

• I - Strengthened windshield
• II - Standard multi-layered windshield
• III - Multi-layered windshield with special treatment
• IV - Plastic glass

Other windows of your car except the windshield could be categorized as ‘V’, which means it’s a glass with a light transmission coefficient that is lower than 70%. Moreover, some windows are printed with ‘T’ or ‘TP’ to represent tempered glass and ‘L’ which means laminated glass. Others just have ‘Laminated’ or ‘Tempered’ spelled out as is.

This one’s a bit tricky to analyze, as car brands have different ways of presenting the manufacturing date of the glass. Take this Nippon branded glass as an example.

There are even other methods on how brands laid out their window’s manufacturing dates such as the one above. Some would even require a bit of Math in order to find out when your window was manufactured.

Believe it or not, these labels can be essential at some point. The following information encoded on your car’s window should be helpful when you’re about to find a replacement for it by identifying the brand and what type of glass it is. You can also consult the manufacturing date when you’re planning on purchasing a used window in order to properly assess its quality.