Offline coatings for architectural glass are increasingly replacing traditional online coatings (pyrolytic coatings) says Grenzebach as glassmakers respond to ever tighter legislative requirements
Worldwide energy laws and their enforcement as well as challenging architectural demands are increasingly driving window and facade manufacturers to use glass which has been processed in a smart way to cover the requested performance data accordingly.
As a result of that, most of today’s architectural glass used for commercial and residential buildings needs to be coated with thin film layers which control the energy flow through the finished window or facade element. Such thin film coatings are applied onto the raw glass surface between the float process and other successive processes (e.g. tempering, laminating, IG-unit assembly etc.). Currently, offline coatings (also known as soft coatings) with regard to their outstanding performance characteristics are replacing the traditional online coatings (pyrolytic coatings) which are limited regarding the above mentioned criteria.