G L A S S & G L A S S PROCESSING Modern security glass – tough but beautiful Safety and security glass has come a long way since the days of wired glazing, as Phil Brown, European technical advisory manager at Pilkington UK, explains. As well as protecting occupants from personal injury and helping to defend buildings from intruders and criminals, today’s superior safety and security glass products offer much more besides. From banks and shopping centres to offices and schools, safety and security glass allows fabricators and installers to create aestheticallypleasing buildings while protecting the people in it. While safety and security glass are closely linked, there is a distinction between the two terms. It’s crucial that fabricators, installers and endusers alike understand the difference between these products if they are to specify the correct glass. Critical locations Glass in doors, door side panels, partitions as well as low windows and low-level glass in walls are all considered to be ‘critical locations’ and require the installation of safety glass. According to British Standards and Part K of the Building Regulations in England, these areas of glazing are the most likely to cause accident or injury should the glass break. Safety and security Safety applies to glazing that reduces the risk of an accident by impact or fracture, while security glass can also withstand various deliberate attacks, whether manual or ballistic, and provide a degree of blast resistance. These products are made by laminating panes of glass together. This is a process whereby multiple sheets of glass are ‘sandwiched’ with a polyvinylbutyral (PVB) layers, and bonded together using heat and pressure. Unlike traditional glazing, in the event of breakage, the laminated glass will break but the PVB interlayer will help hold the fragments in place. This results in a product that can remain in place after impact, making it safer for people within the building. Laminated glass also offers considerable security benefits. When correctly installed, its resistance to penetration can help to protect against bullets, explosions and manual attack. Specifying the right glass is, however, only one step in ensuring people and properties are protected in such events. The behaviour of glass varies depending on the way it is framed, which is why it’s imperative to combine high performance, laminated glass in suitable systems in order to achieve the optimum level of protection. As ever, we recommend consulting with manufacturers in order to achieve the desired result. Multifunctional solutions From solar control and thermal insulation, to self-cleaning and anticondensation glass, today’s safety and security products also offer a number of advanced performance properties made possible by dedicated research and development activity and innovative coating technologies. Depending on the functionality required, these coatings can be applied during the manufacturing process to enhance the window’s performance. This allows fabricators to fulfil a wide variety of end-users’ requirements without compromising on safety and security. It’s this combination of technologies and qualities that’s led to a 7% growth in demand for laminated glass in mainstream applications each year. It’s all so quiet As well as contributing towards safety and security, the presence of the PVB also offers acoustic insulation. This multifunctionality makes laminated glass ideal for use in a number of settings, such as schools and hospitals where a quiet internal environment is desirable. Loud and distracting noises can, particularly in these settings, be of detriment to students’ concentration levels or patients’ recovery. Different levels of performance can be achieved by combining various thicknesses of glass with acoustic PVB interlayers, allowing increased levels of acoustic protection should the school or hospital be located near to a source of noise disturbance, such as a building site or a busy road. With so many glazing solutions available on today’s market, fabricators no longer need compromise on any element of a specification. Modern technologies allow manufacturers to offer end-users the very latest performance, often in the same window, while meeting the strictest safety and security standards. 36 www.ggp.com January 2015
GGP January 2015
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