Vitro Architectural Glass (Formerly PPG Glass)

Heavy Glass

The clearest—and thickest—glass on the market

Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass by Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG glass) can transform your heavy glass applications from attractive to sensational by adding sparkling clarity and unsurpassed color fidelity compared to standard clear glass. Vitro Glass makes Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass in a variety of thicknesses, from ¼-inch (6 mm) up to ¾-inch (19 mm). With its signature blue edge, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass is the ideal choice for a wide range of extra-heavy glass applications, including:

Entrances and Storefronts

Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass provides an entrance glazing option that redefines elegance brilliantly. It is the ideal solution to make your entrance or storefront sparkle, and let the true colors of products, displays and logos shine through. Lobbies and reception areas become breathtaking with the uncommon brightness of Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass. And Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass doors set a new standard thanks to their jewel-like clarity and sparkling blue edges.

Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass provides maximum brightness for entryways with 7 percent higher visible light transmittance (VLT) than ordinary clear glass (in ½-inch glass thickness). Its amazing clarity and color fidelity show products as they really are without the greening and distortion of conventional clear glass, particularly as thickness increases. And because of its absence of color, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass can be laminated in multiple layers and thicknesses to provide strength and protection for applications such as jewelry storefronts.

Learn more

For more details, please review the Starphire Ultra-Clear™ Glass Entrance Glazings and Extra-Heavy Starphire Ultra-Clear™ Glass product information sheets. For performance data, please review the Monolithic Glass Comparison Data Sheet.

Safety and Security Glass

Heavy Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass provides a new level of visual quality to safety and security glazing applications. Special building projects, such as zoo enclosures, fish tanks, jewelry display cases, protective windows and museum cases, present design challenges that are typically solved by using multi-layer laminates. That solution, however, prevents objects from being seen in their true colors, as they are distorted by the “greening” that occurs with increased thicknesses of conventional clear glass.

Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass safety and security glass provides 16 percent higher visible light transmittance (VLT) than ordinary clear glass in a 13/8-inch laminated glass construction, so you get superior clarity that also conceals the actual thickness of the glass. And it can be fabricated easily to your exact specifications. Let Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass bring unparalleled color transmission, clarity and security to your next project.

Learn more

For more details, please review the Starphire Ultra-Clear™ Glass Safety & Security Glazings product information sheet. For performance data, please review the Monolithic Glass Comparison Data Sheet.

Exterior Float Glass

Brilliant, clear building façades

Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass by Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG glass) provides an unprecedented option for curtainwall glass applications, offering brilliant clarity and true-to-life views of the outdoors that conventional glass simply can’t match. 

Spiderwalls and Skylights

When your design calls for maximized transmission of natural light, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass has no equal. Offering maximized transparency with 7 percent higher visible light transmittance (VLT) than conventional clear glass in a typical skylight or spiderwall, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass provides sparkling clarity and undistorted transmission of color.

From art galleries to convention centers, corporate office buildings to shopping malls, when you want to bring the beauty and brightness of the outdoors into your interior, skylights and spiderwalls made with Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass are clearly remarkable.

Learn more.

For more details, please review the  Starphire Ultra-Clear™ Glass Skylite Glazings information sheet.  

For performance data, please review the Monolithic Glass Comparison Data Sheet.

Vision Glazing

To maximize visible light transmission (VLT) and provide unfettered views of the world outdoors, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass brings an uncommon brightness, clarity and color fidelity that no other commercial glazing product can match.  

For vision glazings in which enhanced energy performance is required, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass can be combined with other glass coatings to satisfy energy requirements while maintaining its unique ultra-clear visual character, free of the green cast inherent in ordinary clear float glass.

To boost VLT, combine Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass with solar control low-e coatings, such as Solarban® 70XL, Solarban® 60 or Solarban® 67 glasses. To increase the solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC), combine Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass with passive solar coatings, such as Solarban® R100 or Solarban® z75/z50 glasses. 

Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass maintains its remarkable clarity in thickness from 2.5 mm to 19 mm and is stocked regionally to ensure consistent supply reliability.

Learn more

For more details, please review the Starphire Ultra-Clear™ Glass Vision Glazingsproduct information sheet. For performance data, please review the Monolithic Glass Comparison Data Sheet.

Spandrel Glass

Architects have never had a more beautiful way to conceal the electrical and mechanical areas between floors than with Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass. Its brilliant clarity and absence of greening combine to offer spectacular views and true colors, enabling whites, reds and yellows to be seen with remarkable fidelity.

Vitro Glass is a marketing alliance partner with ICD High Performance Coatings, the industry leader in spandrel glass coatings and manufacturer of OPACI-COAT-300®, a line of high-performance spandrel glass coatings in a range of colors and metallic finishes.

When these water-based coatings are combined with Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass in a spandrel glass unit, they offer a vivid palette of spandrel glass solutions with unparalleled brightness and color fidelity.

Learn more

For more details, please review the Starphire Ultra-Clear™ Glass Spandrel Glass product information sheet.

Low-Iron Interior Glass

For sparkling clarity and brilliant interior views, no other low iron glass delivers like Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass by Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG glass). The unique Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass edge brings more light into interior spaces while offering unmatched levels of brightness, color fidelity, clarity and visual excitement.

To learn more about the increasingly popular use of interior glass for commercial office applications, read the February 2017 issue of Building Design + Construction Magazine. 

Interior Glass

When used for shelves, showcases, tabletops, back splashes, doors, side lites, decorative panels, clerestories and partitions, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass provides true color fidelity while remaining crystal clear as thickness increases. Its unique blue edge imparts a luxury and sophistication conventional glass cannot match.

Balustrades

For balustrades, handrails and bannisters, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass makes interiors pop with stunning transparency. Vitro glass is a marketing alliance partner with Walker Glass in offering the Walker Textures® line of acid-etched glass and mirrors made with Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass. This glass is ideal for use with acid-etched glass products because of its clarity and color fidelity, which create spectacular dividing walls, wall coverings, office partitions, show and bath enclosures, doors and display shelving, and can be used in other interior applications.

In addition to its amazing clarity, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass’s jewel-like blue edge has a distinct advantage over conventional glass, which displays a distorting greenish cast as the thickness increases.

Bath Enclosures

Because of its supreme clarity, Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass is the perfect choice for shower and bathtub enclosures using Clarvista™ glass. Clarvista™ glass is a factory-fused, transparent coating that protects new shower glass against dullness caused over time by the corrosive effects of heat and humidity. The Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass distinctive blue edge provides a luxurious aesthetic to any bathroom. 

Learn more

To see how Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glass maintains edge clarity and a beautiful aesthetic as the glass gets thicker and longer, download the new edge color guide. 

Blending Natural Views with Solar Efficiency

Glass is one of the most popular and versatile building materials used today, and it provides a dramatic aesthetic. But the beauty of glass is pointless if the people inside the building are uncomfortable or if energy inefficiency makes the building too expensive to operate.

Low-emissivity (low-e) glass coatings were developed to minimize the amount of ultraviolet and infrared light that can pass through glass without compromising the amount of visible light that is transmitted. A microscopically thin transparent coating allows low-e glass to reflect exterior heat in warm temperatures and hold in heat during cold temperatures, making buildings light, bright and energy-efficient.

Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG glass) offers two types of low-e coated glasses: Solarban® solar control low-e glasses and Sungate® passive low-e glass. Learn about low-e glass and how it works in the Glass Education Center.

Solarban® Solar Control Low-E Glasses by Vitro Architectural Glass

Solarban® glass is a spectrally selective glass option which reduces long (ultraviolet) and short wave (infrared) radiation, while at the same time allowing visible light to be transmitted through the glass. Solarban® glass products by Vitro Glass let you specify larger spans of glass that maximize natural daylighting without sacrificing thermal efficiency.

With a range of options, the Solarban® family of glass products features a clear aesthetic and among the highest light-to-solar gain (LSG) ratios in the industry and can be combined with tints for even better performance. 

Solarban® z50 Glass

A stylish tinted glass that performs up to 30 percent better than similarly tinted solar control low-e glasses.

Solarban® 60 Glass

The original Solarban® glass features a clear, color-neutral appearance that can be combined with clear, tinted or reflective glasses for unlimited options with solar control.

Solarban® 67 Glass

Excellent solar performance with a soft, neutral coating that gives a clean, clear and crisp exterior appearance that “pops.”

Solarban® 70XL Solar Control Low-E Glass

Solarban® 70XL by Vitro Glass can be used in a variety of ways as a when designing your next commercial building.

Solarban® 72 Solar Control Low-E Glass

A triple-silver coated glass that provides high levels of transparency without sacrificing solar control performance.

Solarban® z75 Glass

A neutral steel blue-gray glass that excels at controlling glare while offering superior daylighting and solar control properties.

Solarban® 90 Glass

Solarban® 90 glass combines exceptional solar control performance with the neutral aesthetic appeal of clear glass.

Solarban® R100 Glass

A neutral-reflective, low-e glass that provides significant improvements in solar performance compared to competing products in the same category.

Sungate® Passive Low-E Glass by Vitro Architectural Glass

With its ability to transmit the warming rays of the sun, Sungate® passive low-e glass offers the perfect balance of energy efficiency and interior comfort for heating-dominated climates because it improves thermal performance and reduces solar heat gain. Since the coatings are neutral, Sungate® 400 glass is the ideal solution for energy-efficient commercial structures where the original appearance of the glass is desired. 

Sungate® 400 Glass

Offering excellent insulating performance with an exceptionally clear aesthetic.

Vistacool® Glasses

Softly reflective with rich color

Vistacool® subtly reflective color-enriched glasses transmit generous levels of visible light and provide color neutrality, which amplifies and enriches the tint of the glass substrate underneath without a mirror-like appearance. More understated than traditional reflective glass, Vistacool® glasses are available in two distinct tints—aqua-blue Azuria® and rich-blue Pacifica®.  Vistacool® glasses can be combined with Solarban® solar control low-e glass or Sungate® 400 low-e glass to achieve light-to-solar gain ratios of as high as 1.66.

For detailed performance data, please review the Reflective glass product data sheet.

To see if Vistacool® glass meets the aesthetic and performance needs for your next project, visit the Vitro Search Tool.

Solarcool® Glasses

The Solarcool® family of reflective coated glass was introduced in 1972 and, for more than 40 years, has enhanced the appearance of thousands of buildings and the comfort of millions of their inhabitants. 

Solarcool® glasses can be glazed with the reflective coating positioned on either the first or second surface. The glass has improved performance and higher exterior visible-reflectivity with a metallic sheen when installed with the coating on the first surface. Combined in a 1-inch insulating glass unit with clear glass, Solarcool® glasses offer an expansive palette of appearance and performance options with solar heat gain coefficients (SHGCs) ranging from 0.34 to 0.14 and exterior reflectance of up to 37 percent.

When installed with the coating on the second surface, the glass has lower exterior visible reflectivity and maintains the substrate glass color. Combine Solarcool® glasses with Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG glass) tinted glasses, such as Solargray®, Solarbronze®, Solexia®, Solarblue®, Azuria® or Pacifica®, to produce an even greater range of aesthetic options. 

For detailed performance data, please review the Reflective Glass product data sheet.

To see if Solarcool® glasses meet the aesthetic and performance needs for your next project, visit the Vitro Search Tool.

Explore our selections using the links below. 
 

PACIFICA® Glass

Rich blue Pacifica® glass can be combined with reflective Solarcool™ or subtly reflective, color-enriched Vistacool™ coatings.

ATLANTICA® Glass

Atlantica® glass combines desirable visible light transmittance and solar control with a pleasant emerald-green aesthetic.

AZURIA® Glass

Azuria® glass is a stunning aqua-blue glass with a distinctive aesthetic that blends brilliantly with the surrounding environment.

SOLARBLUE® Glass

Solarblue® glass features a sparkling, light sky-blue appearance that balances high visible light transmittance and solar heat gain.

SOLEXIA® Glass

Solexia® glass is a soothing, light-green glass that is an industry standard for spectrally selective performance.
 

OPTIBLUE® Glass

Optilblue® glass offers a light-boded, cool, neutral appearance that enhances the aesthetics of all Solarban® glasses.

New Ultra-Neutral Optigray® Glass

Glass that combines a warm, neutral aesthetic with advanced solar control

Optigray® glass, the newest addition to Vitro Architectural Glass’s (formerly PPG glass) collection of neutral tinted glasses, is designed to eliminate the green cast typically found in conventional clear glass formulations. It produces a warm, ultra-neutral aesthetic that brings crispness to vision glazing. 

Specially formulated to function as a substrate with solar control low-e coatings, Optigray®glass delivers advanced solar performance when paired with solar control low-e glasses, such as Solarban® 70XL, Solarban® 67, Solarban® 60 and Solarban® R100 glasses by Vitro Glass. Optigray® glass produces light-to-solar gain (LSG) ratios of up to 1.96, with visible light transmission (VLT) between 29 percent and 50 percent, depending on which Solarban® glass is specified.

With a subtle light-gray tint, Optigray® glass balances light transmittance and solar control to offer superior performance combined with a beautiful aesthetic. 

For detailed performance data, please review the Optigray® glass product data sheet.

To see if Optigray® glass meets the aesthetic and performance needs for your next project, visit the Vitro Search Tool.

Solargray® Glass

Commercial window tint without film

Solargray® glass has been a popular choice for commercial structures because of its cool, light-gray appearance and ability to control solar heat gain and glare. In a 1-inch insulating glass unit (IGU), Solargray® glass provides visual light transmittance (VLT) of 40 percent. Solargray® glass may also be combined with Sungate® 400 glass in a 1-inch IGU for improved solar heat gain performance and lower U-values. Solargray® glass’s light-gray color makes it an attractive choice in combination with almost any other exterior cladding material.

For detailed performance data, please review the Solargray® glass product data sheet.

To see if Solargray® glass meets the aesthetic and performance needs for your next project, visit the Vitro Search Tool.

Graylite® II Glass

Privacy glass with a punch

With its bold, almost-black look, Graylite® II glass is the solution for applications requiring reduced solar heat gain and a specific aesthetic objective. Graylite® II glass combines superior heat-load reduction and solar control with a distinctive color contrast. Its shading coefficient is among the lowest of any uncoated glass: 0.35 for a 1-inch IGU. Daylight transmittance is 8 percent, making it ideal for glare control and privacy glazing.

For detailed performance data, please review the Graylite® II glass product data sheet.

To see if Vitro Glass’s Graylite® II high-performance glass meets the aesthetic and performance needs for your next project, visit the Vitro Search Tool.

Solarbronze® Glass

A proven high-performance bronze glass

Solarbronze® glass has been a staple in architectural glass offerings since the 1960s because it creates a bold visual statement while maintaining energy efficiency and occupant comfort. A popular choice for commercial structures, Solarbronze® glass has a warm bronze tint that adds subtle richness to the exterior and a warm glow to interior décor. The bronze color especially complements brick and stone facades.

In a 1-inch IGU, Solarbronze® glass provides a visual light transmittance (VLT) of 47 percent. For even better performance, combine Solarbronze® glass with Sungate® 400 glass in a 1-inch IGU to improve solar heat gain performance and lower U-values. To achieve spectrally selective glass, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Energy, team Solarbronze® glass with Solarban® 60 solar control low-e glass to earn a light-to-solar gain (LSG) ratio of 1.25 or better.

For detailed performance data, please review the Solarbronze® glass product data sheet.

To see if Solarbronze® glass meets the aesthetic and performance needs for your next project, visit the Vitro Search Tool.