About Glass

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An important choice you make in purchasing windows is what type of glass to put in them. Glass has a large effect on the heat your house loses at night, the heat it gains during the day and noise levels from outside. The glass in your windows helps to determine the level of comfort, security and privacy in your home. No matter the location of your site or the positioning of the windows within a project, The Folding Sliding Door Company provides you with many glass solutions.

Double-glazed glass
Insulating glass is a multi-glass combination consisting of two or more panes enclosing a hermetically-sealed air space. The most important function of insulation glass is to reduce thermal losses, which offers many advantages: lower energy consumption, perfect transparency by reducing the incidence of condensation on the warm air side and the possibility of using larger glazed areas without increasing energy consumption ...

Production:
Insulating glass is a glazed unit composed of two or more glass panes separated by spacers filled with dehydrated air or gas. The sheets are connected by a spacer, using sealants to reduce water vapour penetration. The whole unit is hermetically assembled by a secondary edge seal which gives structural robustness to the insulating glass. The spacer contains a desiccant which absorbs humidity from within the air space. The insulating glass unit (IGU) is made manually or with an automatic plant.

Tempered Glass

The tempering process produces highly desirable conditions of induced stress which result in additional strength, resistance to thermal stress and impact resistance.

Fully tempered glass must have a surface compression of 10,000 PSI (Annealed is below 3500 PSI) and heat strengthened must have a surface compression between 3,500 and 7,500 PSI.

The basic principle employed in the heat treating process is to create an initial condition of surface and edge compression. The condition is achieved by first heating the glass, then cooling the surfaces rapidly.

This leaves the center glass thickness relatively hot compared to the surfaces. As the center thickness then cools, it forces the surfaces and edges into compression.

Wind pressure, foreign object impact and thermal stresses or other applied loads must first overcome this compression before there is a possibility of breakage.

In the heat treatment process the key procedure is application of a rapid air quench immediately upon withdrawal of hot (1200 degrees F) glass from the tempering furnace. The immediate and sustained application of an air quench produces the temper.

A quenched condition becomes stable when the glass is reduced to a temperature of approximately 400-600 degrees F.

Tempered glass is about 4 times stronger than standard annealed.

When broken, Toughened Glass shatters into small blunt - edged fragments (dice) reducing the risk of human injury

Available in thicknesses ranging from 4-19mm  (¼" - ¾")

Toughened glass sheet sizes up to 1.9 metres (75") by 3.8 metres (150"). Minimum size 280mm (11").

Low-E (K)

Winter Time

The sun's energy is "short wave radiation" that passes through the window and is absorbed by carpet, furniture, etc. The energy is then transformed into long wave radiation. The long wave radiation wants to flow from warm to cool. Naturally it will try to escape through the glass. At night the radiant heat produced from furnaces, wood stoves, etc. will also want to escape out. The Low-E coating prevents this when the radiant room side heat is reflected back in to the home. This results in a lower winter U-value. For winter comfort, the higher the indoor glass temperature, the better the product is for comfort.

Summer Time

The Low-E coating manages the suns heat in the summer by reducing the amount of heat transferred through the window in the summer. The Low-E coating filters the suns short wave radiation which cuts down on the amount of solar heat gain into your home. For summer comfort, the lower the indoor glass temperature, the better the product is for comfort.

Throughout the year, Low-E reduces Ultraviolet rays which can damage curtains, flooring, furniture, etc.

What Low-E does

The Low-E allows most natural light to enter freely but reflects a significant portion of short-wave heat energy.
In the summer, long-wave heat energy radiating from objects is reflected back outside, lowering cooling cost.
In winter, internal long-wave heat energy is reflected back inside, lowering heating cost.

What is Low-E?

Low-E is the clear low-emissivity coating on one side of the glass that is microscopically - thin and has optically transparent layers of silver sandwiched between layers of metal oxide coatings. This specific process is known as "sputter coating" and is also referred to as soft coat. Low-E filters the suns energy in the summer and reduces heat loss in the winter. Low-E lets in visible sunlight while blocking infrared and reducing ultraviolet solar energy that fades carpet and furniture.

Laminated Glass

Laminated glass is produced by permanently bonding two pieces of glass together with a tough plastic interlayer (polyvinyl butyral) under heat and pressure.
Once bonded together, the sandwich behaves as a single piece.
The interlayer is invisible when viewed through the glass and with glass on either side, the finished lite is indistinguishable from plain glass when installed.
Most often, laminated glass is produced from annealed glass, but heat strengthened or tempered can be used when special performance needs are present.
The benefit of laminated glass is that if broken, glass fragments adhere to the plastic interlayer rather than falling free and potentially causing injury. Laminated annealed glass can be cut or drilled.

Protection from vandalism and burglary

Laminate resists penetration – glass may break but interlayer retains overall integrity and continues to act as a barrier
Protects against break-ins by preventing or slowing down burglary attempts
Protects against vandalism and brief attacks using easily available objects
Withstands repeated blows from heavy objects such as bricks, hammers, crowbars and similar hand held heavy objects
Depending on the extent of the attack the product remains integral and protects the premises adequately and limits penetration whilst awaiting replacement, offering:
– protection from secondary looting
– damage from the wind and weather
– safety while broken, reducing personal injury
– often no need for ‘boarding up’
Typical applications include buildings or shops displaying valuable goods, banks, building societies, post offices, security glazing in hospitals and prisons, museum display cases etc. 
The correct grade and thickness specified for the application depends on the value of goods on display, degree of risk, estimated time needed by thieves to break in and enter