Design options for glass

Date: 15 April 2022
Copyright:
  • Guardian Glass
Design options for glass
Photo source
Guardian Glass

Date: 15 April 2022

Glass can form and shape a space, creating transparent architecture that can make you feel closer to the outside world.

For centuries, people used glass to simply fill ‘light holes’ in the outer walls of buildings. Today, it is a pivotal component in many buildings; a material that allows you to push the boundaries of architectural design still further, stretching the limits of our imagination to help create unique, visually striking, high performance designs. 

Glass can form and shape a space, creating transparent architecture that can make you feel closer to the outside world. You can choose a coated glass for the façade of a building with the reflective properties you desire. From very to slightly reflective, or even one with a color that complements the building’s surroundings. Essentially, the shape and color of glass can be manipulated in so many ways.  

Curved glass 

Designing with glass doesn’t mean you have to design in straight lines. If you prefer corners and edges with soft curves, curved glass can help turn your ideas into reality.  

For building envelopes, the glass (which can also be coated) can be curved using a thermal gravity process. Here the glass pane slowly descends into a bending mold of a specific shape.  This means many options are possible, from concave and convex, to cylindrical and two-axis. If safety is important, the glass can also be laminated after the bending process.

Alternatively, the glass can be shaped using heat treatment – either through tempering or heat strengthening.  To increase the final strength of the glass, it is then cooled down rapidly, immediately after the desired curvature has been achieved. 

Curved glass 

Printing on glass 

By applying coatings to float glass, aesthetic and performance options can be expanded.  Whether that’s a specific color, a color-neutral appearance, or a reflective, highly transparent glass design. Other techniques can be used to create your ideal design, such as etched, patterned and back-painted glass. Here, we’ll focus on some of the techniques used to print on glass. 

Inks and ceramic paints (enamels) can be printed on glass. Enamels are printed and fired onto float glass. During the tempering process of the glass, the enamels melt and fuse permanently to the glass surface to form a colored ceramic layer.  Techniques for printing on glass include: 

Roller coating

Here the ceramic enamel is applied precisely and uniformly over areas such as spandrels and edge enameling.

Roller coating

Screen-printing

This involves preparing a mesh that creates ‘open’ (to be printed) and ‘closed’ (not to be printed) sections. The enamel is then pressed through the open parts of the mesh using a scraper. The ‘open’ sections form the motif or patterns to be printed.

Screen-printing

Digital printing

This technique gives you greater design flexibility. It typically involves the use of a digital glass printer to apply ceramic enamel in the form of patterns or images onto the glass surface.

Digital printing

Color interlayers in laminated glass

A large palette of different color foils can also be combined to achieve any color you can imagine in laminated glass. Guardian Glass works with fabricators around the world that have this variety of ability.

Color interlayers in laminated glass

Find out more

600450 Design options for glass glassonweb.com

Others also read

The purpose of this study is to investigate the stress distribution along the sealant joint of a cylindrically curved glass panel subjected to wind pressure and to establish if the panel curvature influences the stress distribution along the joint length.
The research presents advantages and disadvantages for each different load type regarding interlayer chemical response.
This paper presents a feasibility study of spray printed glass on flat glass and shows results regarding the practical realization, pore distribution of the novel glass connections and microscopy.
In this paper we focus on automotive applications and describe the tests we performed to find the limits of ultrathin glass in handling and within tests simulating stress expected in the field.
Today talking about the trends, challenges, and innovations of flat glass lamination on Glastory.
This contribution introduces concepts for prestressing laminated glass beams with Fe-SMA tendons adhesively or mechanically connected to the glass beams.

FROM INDUSTRY

52 Corniche El-Nil, AL-SHARIFAIN Tower 10th Floor,
Maadi,
Cairo Governorate
11728
Egypt

Via Del Lavoro Snc
64023 Mosciano Sant’Angelo TE
Italy

Pol. Ind. Penapurreira Parcela C4-B,
15320 As Pontes de García Rodríguez A Coruña
Spain

Polígono Lalín 2000
36512 Lalín Pontevedra
Spain

İçmeler Mah. D-100 Karayolu Cad. No:44A,
34947 Tuzla,/İstanbul
Turkey

Ottergemsesteenweg 707-Zuid
9000 Ghent
Belgium

ARTICLES RELATED PRODUCTS

Hornos Industriales Pujol
Guardian Glass North America
Diamon-Fusion International, Inc.
R.C.N. Solutions Srl

Add new comment