SentryGlas Acoustic® Interlayer: When Strength meets Silence

Since its launch in 1998, SentryGlas® has forged an outstanding reputation in the glazing and architectural industries, with its class-leading structural and aesthetic performance helping to revolutionise architectural features, accelerate design innovations and reinforce engineering capabilities.

To maintain, reinforce and grow this reputation, Kuraray’s Advanced Interlayer Solutions Division (AIS) has undertaken significant research and development across its entire interlayer range, resulting in the launch of a number of new, enhanced and augmented products.

The latest result of this research, SentryGlas Acoustic® (SGA®), is set to have as big an influence on architecture and engineering as the original, thanks to its ability to combine the incredible structural performance of SentryGlas® with enhanced acoustic-attenuation capabilities.

A history of performance

Originally developed to help windows, façades and glazed structures stand up to the immense power of hurricanes and wind-borne projectiles and debris, SentryGlas® has since become the performance interlayer of choice for many demanding applications, all over the planet.

It’s clarity, low yellowing index, stiffness and outstanding post-breakage performance have helped unleash myriad design possibilities, allowing architects to use glass panels as structural elements with minimal edge support and even open-edge designs. This performance is coupled to impressive longevity, with some façades exhibiting negligible ill effects, even after 25 years of environmental exposure in the Gulf region.

Other variants include: SentryGlas Xtra® (SGX®), which streamlines and improves lamination processing efficiency; SentryGlas® Natural UV, which offers enhanced transmittance of natural ultraviolet (UV) light; and SentryGlas® Translucent White (TW), which deploys a variety of white colours to deliver pleasing aesthetic effects.

Combined capabilities

As its name suggests, SentryGlas Acoustic® (SGA®) is a unique, highly durable interlayer where a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) core layer, which offers the acoustic performance, is closely coupled between two stiff Ionomer outer layers that offer the impact/structural performance. Indeed, SentryGlas Acoustic®, like the original variant, is capable of passing stringent large-missile-impact tests in applications that experience high design pressures, including those in hurricane-prone zones.

Originally developed with hurricane glazing applications in mind, where outstanding structural performance must be combined with effective acoustic attenuation, the new variant is also ideally suited for closed-edge applications such as airport windows and overhead glazing in building atria. In these applications, where both sound insulation and structural performance are critical, it enables architects, designers, and engineers to design thinner, lighter glazing constructions than would typically be possible with conventional acoustic PVB interlayers. However, should additional functionality and performance be required, SentryGlas Acoustic® can be combined with either SentryGlas® or SentryGlas Xtra®.

Stringent testing

Significant testing and characterisation, commissioned and undertaken by Kuraray, demonstrate that the new interlayer reduces perceived sound by a factor of a half over specific frequencies, compared to traditional SentryGlas®, with Sound Transmission Class (STC) and dB(rw) being three points higher, comparable to an acoustic PVB. The addition of air gaps and multi-panel constructions elevate the acoustic properties even higher.

This improved acoustic capability is coupled with class-leading structural performance. Although traditional SentryGlas® remains the benchmark for stiffness, the product continues to outperform all PVB alternatives, including stiff PVB grades. Its optical characteristics are equally outstanding, combining exceptional clarity, excellent UV screening and high levels of visual transparency.

Kuraray has also undertaken natural and accelerated weather and environmental testing to confirm and qualify impact and transmittance values, alongside compatibility tests with popular and widely used sealants.

All the comprehensive test data is available for users to interrogate, to assess the suitability and capability of the new variant for new-build and refurbishment projects. SentryGlas Acoustic® will also be added to the company’s engineering calculators and AI tools, and will be Authenticated by CertiPly™, Kuraray’s blockchain-based authentication technology.

Environmentally sound

Finally, for applications and locations where sustainability is a defining factor in project measurement and success, the single-laminate capabilities offered by SentryGlas Acoustic® mean that the glass content (thickness) can be reduced to create glazed panels that deliver comparable structural and acoustic performance to panels that would traditionally comprise much thicker and heavier glazing/interlayer combinations. This reduction removes significant quantities of embodied carbon, combined with all the additional manufacturing- and logistics-based energy expenditure required for heavier products.

With SentryGlas Acoustic®, architects and engineers no longer need to choose between strength, acoustics and sustainability. They can now design for all three simultaneously.