Insulated glass is made with 2 or 3 panels ,to ensure the long lifetime and good thermal insulation performance,the edges must be sealed strictly to keep the space between glass panels.The spacer’s function are:keep insulated glass structural safety,insulate the IGU internal space.

Traditional spacers used in the IGU are usually aluminium spacer,the disadvantage is high thermal conductivity.So when the external panel glass temperature increased during the daytime in summer,or the internal panels temperature becomes high in winter,the heat can easily been conducted through the aluminium spacers,this will result in condensation, and cause glass mildew after long time,another result is,the overall windows,or glass facade thermal insulation performance becomes very bad,and cause high energy costs .The glass edge U value is an important part of the overall windows U value.

insulated-glass-with-aluminium-spacer

insulated glass,warm edge spacer can decrease glass U value.

To avoid the energy wastes caused by the high thermal conductivity of aluminium spacers,warm edge spacers were developed.Warm edge spacer is made with stainless steel,nylon or other materials.

Types of warm edge spacers

Warm edge spacers are divided into 3 kinds:

warm-edge-space-options-insulated glass

insulated glass spacer option

  1. Non-metal materials,such as superspacer, TPS,glass fiber stripes.The main brands are QUANEX,they have series products that compose the butyl,desiccant,and structural sealant, so secondary structural sealant is not necessary.But because there’s no high efficiency production lines that can produce this kind of insulated glass,the promotion and market for non-metal materials spacers are very limited.
  2. Partial metal products:thermal break spacers, spacer compose metal and plastic materials.The main brands are Alupro,Technoform,Fenzi,Lisec. The is the most widely used materials used.Because IGU manufacturers can process the spacer with same production lines including spacer bending machine,desiccant filling machine ,and IGU insulating lines.Compared with non-metal materials,this kind spacer price is better and more convenient in production.
  3. Metal spacer whose thermal conductivity lower than Aluminium, for example stainless steel spacer.Stainless steel spacer has difficult in bending,so factories have to use steel connector to join the spacers,which make production efficiency quite low.So this is not widely used in IGU fabricators.

The advantage of using warm edge spacers:

  1. Warm edge spacers can decrease the windows overall U value by 0.06-0.4W/M2.K.

The price of warm edge spacer IGU is just 10% higher than normal aluminium spacers,while the warm edge spacer can decrease the overall windows U value in the next decades of years and save energy costs.

warm-edge-spacer-lower-U-value

insulated glass U value

Warm edge spacer’s low thermal conductivity ensures that the temperature difference between external and interior glass panels can reach 7℃,and prevent the glass condensation.compared with aluminium spacers, the condensation degree of warm edge spacer can be 20 degrees lower than aluminium spacer.

warm-edge-spacer-IGU-has-lower-condensation-point

warm edge spacer IGU dew point

Without the possible condensation,glass mildew is avoided,and glass lifetime is pro-longed.

Now warm edge space have been widely used in European and American countries.While in many developing countries,aluminium spacers is still the main component of the insulated glass,While with the decreased costs of low-E coatings,in addition to the filled argon,the glass U value can decrease about 0.4-0.5W/M2.K.Now the low-E coating ,even triple silver low-E coating glass emissivity has reached only 0.03 and very difficult to improve again,while the application of warm edge spacer give architects and designers another option to have better performance.

Morn is China reputable warm edge IGU manufacturer and exporter in China,with EN/IGCC certified IGU products,Morn is your most reliable glass supplier in China.

Tags:insulated glass,warm edge IGU manufacturer,windows U value,glass U value,glass condensation,warm edge spacer,what’s warm edge spacer,warm edge spacer introduction,glass thermal insulation performance,warm edge spacer advantage,thermal conductivity

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