|
contents | business | |||||||||
| Laminated safety glass helps minimize renovation costs  The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft recently chose to use Siglaplus laminated safety glass from Flachglas Wernberg for the renovation of the facade at its Munich (Germany) headquarters. Siglaplus laminated safety glass is produced with high strength, high stiffness DuPont SentryGlas interlayer, and combines required levels of safety performance with particularly low weight. As a consequence, the existing supporting structure, which had been originally designed for use with toughened safety glass, could continue to be used, leading to the cost-efficient completion of the overall renovation project for the extensive facade.During the renovation and refurbishment of facades there is a growing preference to replace existing panels made of toughened safety glass with those made of laminated safety glass. Benefits of laminated safety glass include the fact that, in the event of breakage, glass fragments remain adhered to the interlayer so that the panel remains almost entirely intact within its fixing and post glass breakage strength is high. However, because standard laminated glass with a PVB interlayer, providing the same load capacity as toughened safety glass, is considerably heavier, its usage as a replacement can often involve the considerable costs of renewing or reinforcing the supporting structure. The lower weight of laminated safety glass with SentryGlas interlayer now enables more cost-efficient renovation projects. This was the situation encountered by the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft at its headquarters in Munich. Its facade had originally been completed with toughened safety glass, which was to be replaced with laminated safety glass as part of a modernization project. Standard laminates with polyvinylbutyral (PVB) would have exceeded the load capacity of the supporting structure and the metal panel frames, and would have required extensive modifications to the construction. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Construction News :: home page |