Several glasses are utilized in transparent armor, such as normal plate glass (soda-lime-silica), borosilicate glasses, and fused silica. Plate glass has been the most common glass used due to its low cost, but greater requirements for the optical properties and ballistic performance have generated the need for new materials. Chemical or thermal treatments can increase the strength of glasses, and the controlled crystallization of certain glass systems can produce transparent glass-ceramics. Alstom Grid Research & Technology (Stafford, UK), produced a lithium disilicate based glass-ceramic known as TransArm, for use in transparent armor systems with continuous production yielding vehicle windscreen sized pieces (and larger). The inherent advantages of glasses and glass-ceramics include having lower cost than most other ceramic materials, the ability to be produced in curved shapes, and the ability to be formed into large sheets.