Learn How to Starphire Ultra-Clear® Grass buy vitro architectural glass It can affect daylighting, clarity and overall design excellence.
In the art world, a master painter starts with choosing a canvas. For example, linen his canvases are most often chosen over cotton, because nothing offers an artist’s more authentic vision than linen.
Similarly, choosing good architectural glass allows designers to maximize creativity, vibrancy and dimension in any project.
While it is true that glass manufacturers have made significant technological advances in recent years in a wide range of areas, including energy efficiency, there are still significant differences in how glass manufacturers approach clarity and light transmission.
To better understand these divisions, let’s take a look at how conventional clear glass and low-iron glass each affect daylighting, clarity, and overall design excellence. Especially when it comes to interior design.
Less green and more transparent
The cotton canvas and linen canvas metaphor is particularly well suited for glass conversation. Although they may look similar on the surface, there are noticeable differences when it comes to performance.
As good as today’s traditional “clear” glass, but not completely clear. A typical clear glass has a slight but distinct green tint under light. It has high visible light transmission (VLT) and reasonable color neutrality and transparency, but the green tint of the clear glass intensifies with increasing thickness. The iron oxide content in the glass is responsible for the green tint.
In contrast, low-iron glasses (glasses with less iron oxide) eliminate the green cast inherent in clear glasses, making them a better alternative for unique and specialized applications. The resulting clear glass is significantly lower than the highest potential clarity of low iron glass (up to 87% less green tint) and a generous 91 VLT rating.
In fact, there are no industry-standard specifications for “clear” glass, and its clarity varies widely between manufacturers and product batches.
Clear glass and low-iron glass are produced using the same float method and equipment, but low-iron glass requires higher purity of raw materials, so it has better clarity and brilliance.
It’s no wonder low iron glass is the glass of choice for the interior and exterior of a wide range of iconic structures, including: Amazon Headquarters, SoFi StadiumFrank Lloyd Wright’s falling water, Chicago O’Hare International Airport And more projects around the world.
Extreme Neutrality as Aesthetics
Historically, the purest low-iron glasses have been prized for their ability to show daylight and outside views away from the limelight (literally, after all). It has the characteristic of making the glass look invisible. [Frank Lloyd] Wright admired falling waterIn fact, Wright specified one of the first low-iron glass products in the glass industry in the original specifications of his iconic home. This has been maintained with new lights in today’s version of the same product since its completion.
The extreme neutrality of low-iron glass gives rise to aesthetic trends, decorative interior design where transparency and connectivity between spaces is important, or where maximum inside-to-outside view is the goal. Applications are becoming more and more in demand. Thanks to its minimal green color and pure transparency, low iron glass provides a truly neutral substrate for things like dynamic patterns and colorful designs.
5 decorative uses
Glass industry experts say that low-iron glass is usually the product of choice for façade design, but it is also used for interior elements such as decorative features, doors and partitions, staircases and railings, shower and bath enclosures, kitchens and backsplashes. It is pointed out that it is becoming more and more designated. Maximum color fidelity enhances artistry.
starfire ultra clear® glass by Vitro Architectural Glass is the de facto low-iron standard for the design industry, featuring a distinctive azure rim and a unique low-iron manufacturing process. Like the pristine linen canvas that painters love, starfire ultra clear® Glass is the ultimate blank slate for great interiors.
Today, low iron glass canvas supports virtually limitless decorative treatments such as:
- dichroic glass: Dichroic glass has the effect of creating vibrant color shifts and movement within a single light glass. These effects can be enhanced by using textured glass as one or more lights, or muting them with an acid etch. Dichroic glasses are known for their chameleon-like effect, meaning that the transmitted and reflected colors within the class appear to change from different angles.
- digital ceramic printing: Almost any full-color design can be printed directly onto the surface of low-iron glass. You can apply images, patterns and even text.
- acid etched glass: Provides a surface finish that diffuses transmitted light and reduces glare with a matte appearance. Ideal for walls, wall coverings, office room dividers, shower and bath enclosures, floors, stairs, railings and door dividers. Acid etching is also frequently used to create artistic patterns and for bird-friendly glass, which is in high demand.
- ceramic fritA permanent opaque coating fired onto the glass that provides pattern art ranging from simple shapes and gradients to intricate designs. Combine ceramic frits with coated, tinted, reflective glass or apply to spandrel glass to make designs pop.
- Other applicationsLaminated glass with polished edge glass and tinted or patterned polyvinyl butyral interlayers provide additional decorative options for interior elements.
durability and strength
In addition to these aesthetic applications, starfire ultra clear® By increasing the thickness of the glass, it has excellent strength, making it ideal for security cases, displays, entrances, storefronts, and other safety glass. starfire ultra clear® The glass also has the same hardness and abrasion and scratch resistance as standard clear glass. That means its amazing color fidelity and clarity means it’s just as protected against scratches and scuffs as clear alternatives, with less green distortion. Starfire® Glass is available in a variety of thicknesses from 1/8 inch (3.2 mm) to ¾ inch (19 mm).
If your project calls for a superior glass canvas for dynamic interior design, low iron glass should be your first consideration.Click here for details starfireglass.com again request a sample of starfire ultra clear® Experience the difference between glass and yourself.
