Insulated glass,double glazed units from China is usually cheaper than oversea glass manufacturers,before purchasing insulating glass from China,customers should know clearly the factors that affect the insulated glass price.Here we introduce the factors that all affect the insulated glass price,so customers can evaluate whether it’s worthwhile to purchase glass products from China.
As insulated glass is customized products,its glass configuration,sizes,quantity are different based on different project requirement,beside the basic insulated glass itself,the shipping costs,taxes ,quantity ,processing difficulty,inland logistic costs caused price difference.
Post Guideline:
- Glass Combination A: Glass tempered or not B.Low-E coatings C.Glass thickness D.Glass final combinations E.Glass colors
- Glass Size A.Glass size too big. B.Glass size too small. C.Glass size irregular
- Materials used in insulating glass A.Spacer B.Secondary sealant C.Argon filled insulated glass D.Additional treatment of insulated glass.
- Other factors affect insulating glass price A.Glass packing and loading. B.Forwarder fees and shipping costs. C.Glass broken&replacement
Glass Combination
Facade companies will have a brief project technical specification which contains the basic glass info used in the project,including glass standards,glass configuration,glass thickness, and insulating performance data such as light transmittance,U value,Solar coefficient.
Based on these info we’ll know clearly the general insulating glass types,whether it’s insulating glass with high performance low-E coatings, laminated insulating glass,or insulated laminated glass.
After factory get this info,factories will analysis the performance requirement and find the matched low-E coatings with specified light transmittance,U value and SC values.
Generally the more complex glass configuration,the higher price,here we give a general idea of the price used in projects:
A.Glass tempered or not:
Heat treated glass -tempered glass,heat strengthened glass increase glass safety and help glass to resist high wind pressure,load pressure ,the price for tempering process is about USD0.3/MM.for example 6-12-6 mm insulating glass tempering costs is USD0.3 *(6+6)=USD3.6/SQM.
Because the existing of Nis in tempered glass and the shortage of tempered glass,there’s always spontaneous breakage after glass installation,which brings high maintenance and replacement costs.Heat soaking test is good solution to test the toughened glass and reduce the probability of self-explosion and ensure quality,the shattering proof process is used for high requirement projects.Learn more about glass spontaneous breakage.To avoid the glass self explosion after installation and save replacement and maintenance costs,heat soak process is recommended after tempering process,the heat soaked glass costs is same as tempering process, USD0.3/MM.
Self-exploded glass
For curved glass,as curved tempered glass production can only be tempered piece by piece,adjusting the tempering furnace to make it match requirement also takes times,so curved glass tempering costs is USD1/MM.
B.Low-E coatings:
Additional coatings on glass surface and control the light transmittance and the solar energy penetrate the glass,as well as the solar coefficient,according to different coating types,the coatings can be divided into several types:
| Coating Types | Additional Costs |
| Solar Reflective Coating | USD2/SQM |
| Single Silver low-E coating | USD2/SQM |
| Double Silver low-E coating | USD4/SQM |
| Triple Silver low-E coating | USD14/SQM |
High performance low-E coatings is highly recommended wherever the project is located in,the low-E coatings will reflect the far infrared heat outside in summer ,and reflect the interior heat inside in winter and decrease the energy used .Even though the glass price is higher when building the project,the investment will be returned after only 1-2 years.
lowe glass
Newly developed passive house glass,contains 3 layers glass panels containing 2 layers double silver low-E coatings,the glass U value can reach to only 0.6W/M2.k,in summer,there’s no necessary to open the air conditioners and in winter,no necessary to heat the room,click here to see how low U value the insulated glass can reach: https://www.mornglass.com/whats-the-best-u-value-of-insulated-glass.html
C.Glass thickness:
Thicker glass has better sound control performance,and when glass sizes comes big,it’s also necessary to use thicker glass to increase the glass facade wind resistance and also,glass live load.
The glass thickness and price is related to the float glass,thicker glass, has higher weight,and of course higher price.In 2020,May,float glass price in China reached its lowest points in the past decade,float glass price was just USD 185/MT &USD300/MT, with the recovery of global projects,float glass price increased in the past year and now has been double times than in May,2020.See our previous blog about float glass price.
D.Glass final combination.
Some projects require laminated insulated,insulated glass,and triple glazed units,which will make the glass thicker and with better performance.Please contact the manufacturers or glass suppliers to check the final price.
E.Glass Colors.
Normal insulated glass is clear glass,while some projects require special colors,such as green color,golden color,bronze color,all these special colors are decided by the glass colors and the low-E coatings,in these cases the price is about 10% higher than normal glass,see why? The processing is much more difficult and replacement is more expensive.
green-low-E-coated-glass
2.Glass sizes.
a.Glass size too big.
Glass factories quotation is usually based on sizes below 2440*3660mm,if glass size too big,especially for some over sized glass,point supported glass is usually over 4000mm,in that case,processors has to bespoke raw materials from float glass manufacturers.
The longer the glass,the higher price it is.Morn can supply jumbo size insulated glass up to 13000*3000mm insulated glass panels for your projects.
b.Glass size too small.
If glass panels size below 0.5sqm,factories will charge it as 0.5sqm.Why?
Let’s take insulated glass as example,the silicon sealant consumption is calculated by the glass perimeter,not the glass size.
If glass size is 1000*1000mm,and another piece 330*3000mm,the later one silicon consumption is 60% higher than former one,which will cause price higher.And tempered glass,5 pcs 500*500mm glass has same area as 1 pcs 1250*1000mm,while the labor costs is almost 3 times that of later one.
c.Glass size irregular:
Every facade project has it unique shape and design,which will cause many different glass size.while standard glass panel size is 2140/2400*3300/3660mm.Cutting ratio is over 85%,while for some special glass panels,such as 1400*1400, if using normal standard glass panels,the cutting ratio is only 55%,it’s 30% price difference.
d.Glass size types.
If one project contain 100 glass sizes ,this will bring much extra labors during processing,including handling,cutting,etc.if only 10 sizes ,this will save much costs and decrease price also.
In this case processors has to bespoke special size float glass to increase the glass cutting ratio and avoid wastage.While if quantity is very small,there’s no method but to accept the high price.
Many factors affect glass price,so please consider standard sizes such as 1200*1200/2400/3600 etc to decrease the glass processing difficulty and guarantee the delivery time.
3.Materials used in Insulating glass
A.Spacer:
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.The spacer materials are:
Warm edge spacer -INSULATED GLASS
- Aluminium Spacer:Traditional spacers used in the IGU are usually aluminium spacer,the disadvantage is high thermal conductivity.
- Stainless steel spacer:thermal conductivity lower than Aluminium,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.
- Thermal break spacers, spacer compose metal and plastic materials.The main brands are Alupro,Technoform,Fenzi,Lisec. The is the most widely used warm edge spacers.compared with non-metal materials,this kind spacer price is better and more convenient in production.
- 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.
Aluminium spacer is the most traditional and cheap spacer options,warm edge spacer from technoform,Fenzi is 4-5 times that of normal aluminium spacer,while Quanex warm edge spacer is even more expensive.
B.Secondary sealant:
There’s two kinds sealants used in insulated glass:Structural sealant & polysulfide sealant.
- Polysulfide sealant:Excellent resistance to high&low temperature and sealing performance.
- Structural silicon Sealant: High elasticity and high modulus,long lifetime,better structural performance
- Normal silicon sealant,usually used for small sized windows.
The price of different secondary sealant is polysulfide sealant < silicon sealant <structural silicon sealant.
structural-sealant-insulated-glass-sealant
Different brand sealant price also varies, international sealant brands such as Dow Corning,Sika price is 3-4 times that of China brands-Lingzhi,Guibao,Silande, while China brand sealant quality is also trustworthy and has higher cost performance.
Despite the secondary sealant types,the sealant depth also affect price.China standards allows min 5mm secondary sealant,while for international brands,the standard sealant depth is 12mm and even thicker.
C.Argon filled insulated glass.
Argon is a kind of inert gas, which has colorless, odorless, non-toxic properties and stability. In air, its content is about 1%, and is the most economical inert gas compared with helium and neon.
Argon is usually been filled in the insulated glass to increase the glass thermal insulation performance,let’s take example of single silver low-E + Clear insulated glass, argon content increase from 0-100%,the glass U value decrease from 1.86 to 1.59,for triple silver low-E glass, U value decrease from 1.64 to 1.34.The argon doesn’t affect SC value,LT value and can decrease glass U value significantly.
china insulated glass manufacturer-morn bm
The argon filled insulated glass can improve the thermal insulation performance and sound insulation performance of the insulated glass, reduce the dew point of the insulated glass, prevent oxidation of the coated glass, and reduce the amount of failure of the insulated glass due to the stress . Maintaining argon gas that has been filled into the interior of the double glazed units glass for a long time is very beneficial for maintaining good performance of the insulated glass and prolonging the life of the insulated glass (more than 15 years).
The price of argon filling is USD1.5/SQM.
D.Additional treatment of insulated glass.
There’re many additional processing on glass to suite the facade design and installation purpose,the most common additional extra process include：
- Stepped Glass:Stepped insulated glass,also named as offset insulated glass,it’s used for semi-stick curtain wall and hidden frame curtain wall,and the curtain wall corners .Stepped glass is 10% higher than normal glass.
2.Shaped Glass:Shaped glass increase glass processing costs,including the spacer bending,and secondary sealant must be finished by hand instead of by machine,soshaped glass price is 10% higher.
3.Self-cleaning insulated glass. For easier maintenance,facade owners don’t want waste much time and money cleaning the facade, self -cleaning insulated glass ,is to have a hydrophobic coating that is applied on glass surface to avoid frequent cleaning process,for facade applications,the warranty time is 10 years,price is about USD8/SQM.
4.Capillary tubes.Capillary tube is used in insulated glass to balance the air pressure inside and outside of insulted glass to avoid glass contract or expand after installation.
Sometimes insulated glass production area altitude is quite different from the areas to be installed.If produced in seaside while the installation area latitude is over 1000M high,or produced in high altitude areas while used in seaside.For area pressure reason, glass will expand or shrink after installation,then the capillary is recommended to help keeping glass absolute flat and avoid visual distortion.
Capillary tube is small stainless steel tube with only 1mm diameter,it’s installed on insulated glass edge(from aluminium spacer bar) and certain parts(around 50mm) is exposed outside to keep air flow inside and outside glass.See how to install capillary tubes correctly.
Capillary tube price is USD1 /PCS.
5.Perforated insulating glass:Insulated glass can also been used in point supported glass facade instead of tempered glass and laminated glass.To fix the spider and claw safety,Morn can supply insulated glass with perforations ,sealed with aluminium D rings for better and safe installation.Price is USD3/holes.
6.U channels on insulated glass:Architects and designers in MEGA areas like to insert U channels at glass edge,the U channel will be embedded with the aluminium frame and work as supporting point for the glass,this will cause bigger and thicker spacer (over 20mm) and increased glass costs.Price is USD0.5/channel.
7.Decorative cross bar is also made with aluminium profiles,Different from aluminium spacer bar,it’s used in glass middle,or glass center,it doesn’t support the insulated but only have decorative function.The decorative cross bar color can be customized to be same as the windows frame,but do pay attention to the bar position to keep all cross bars in windows&doors paralled.The bar costs is about USD10/SQM.
4.Other factors affect insulating glass price
After insulating glass is finished,loading insulated glass and deliver it to the sites is another big account of final insulated glass.
Glass packing and loading.
For easier handling and loading,insulated glass is packed into plywood crates,and unit weight will be between 1200-1800kgs.Because of the existing of the air space,insulated glass usually use 40GP and 40HQ to load,unit loading quantity depend on the final destination port weight limit,some port weight limit is 18MT, 20MT and some others allow Max 28MT.Depend on the final weight limit,the unit container insulating quantity varies from 400sqqm -900sqm.
Learn more about the shipping containers and the glass quantity to be loaded in one container,click here:
https://www.mornglass.com/how-much-glass-a-container-can-load.html
2.Forwarder fees and shipping costs.
The forwarder fees including inland logistics from glass factory to the nearest port, and series of port fees in departing port, in China,the costs for 20’GP and 40’HQ is about USD800 and USD1100/container.
The shipping costs, shipping costs changes every month.Famous shipping companies including Maersk,ONE,COSCO,Evergeen,MSC etc.The shipping fees depend on the quantity of goods to be delivered and the shipping capability,shipping companies price changes twice per month,but in some special cases,the shipping fees changes too much.
For example,in May,2020,the shipping fees to Rotterdam was USD700/20’GP,while in May 2021,the costs is USD6000,this is very special time caused by the covid-19 and the accident in Suez Canel.
Destination forwarder fees is similar to the fees happened in depart port,customs clearance,picking up the goods,and inland logistic from the port to the final sites.
What customers should pay is the Tax to be paid.According to the trading regulations with China,most countries enjoy 0% customs tax while some countries require 20% tax based on the CIF price.
All the shipping costs and forwarder costs can be shared by the container quantity glass,so optimizing your glass size and allow maximum glass to be loaded is quite important for customers.
3.Glass broken&replacement
Many factors will lead to glass broken,for example improper packing and reinforcement in factory,the lack of decissant in containers,the unloading process,and the installation process,and even large scale glass self explosion after installation.Glass broken happens in every project,so it’s also one of the most important part when customers decided to purchase insulated glass from China or Not.
Good glass factories will establish well organized customers complaints ,once broken report was received,they ‘ll analysis the reasons why glass is broken and take measures to replace it as soon as possible ,whether it’s free of charge or customer’s reasons.
Some factories will offer free raw materials when loading the glass in case glass broken at site.In this case,customers can find local glass processors to finish the replacement in the shortest time.
Replacement takes some times ,and for fragile glass products,shipping is big problem,both the time and costs.So Morn’s suggestion is ,when placing orders,it’s suggested to prepare some extra panels,especially when glass panel sizes are uniform.Or ask factories to prepare some raw materials based on the largest glass panel sizes.Again,for facade projects,it’s suggested to ask factories to pack the glass according to the glass final installation levels,this might have some extra costs,but does save the time and labors costs handing glass down and up in different levels.
Morn is your turnkey insulated glass manufacturer and supplier,welcome contact us for more info if you got problem purchasing building glass from China.
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