Rapid development of glass structures

 As we mentioned in previous post:Glass panel design for skyscrapers glass facade,glass has 4 characteristics:Transparency,high strength,light weight and long durability.There’ll be no skyscraper without glass curtain walls.

Modern glass structure development was also been promoted by the glass production &processing technology,and new interlayers developed these years.

 

1. Glass production &processing technology.

 

In 2005, the 1^st piece low iron glass was produced in Jinjing group,.

In 2007,Jinjing group produced 7000*3660*19mm low iron float glass.

In May,2011, CSG produced the ultra long low iron glass 16000*3300mm,the glass was applied in Hongkong apple store.

Following that low iron glass Max size reached 18000*3660mm in China.

Clear float glass,from normal 4280/4580/4880*3300, to 13000*3300, 18000*3300, to now 18000*4580mm.

Matched glass processing equipment,including cutting,edging,tempering,laminating and insulating process equipment were also invented to fit the newest design idea.

ultra long glass tempering and laminating production

2. Structural interlayer development.

Laminated glass is used for structural glass projects.When designing with PVB laminated glass,glass bearing capability and strength is equal to the sum of the bearing capacity or rigidity of each piece of glass; when using SGP film, the equivalent thickness of the laminated glass can be the overall laminated glass thickness, so its bearing capacity and rigidity are greatly improved.

all glass curtain wall installation

Sample Project: All glass curtain wall

Facade panel:12+2.28SGP+12 Low-E+16A+12+2.28SGP+12 low iron tempered laminated insulated ,11780*1500mm.

Glass fin:12+2.28SGP+12+2.28SGP+12 low iron tempered laminated glass,11790*500mm.

Glass structure types:

Glass structures are commonly used for panels, including wall panels and load-bearing floors. In addition, when used in the main load-bearing structure, there are beams, columns and frames.

1. Glass beams:Glass beams are usually used as supporting structures for glass skylights.For safety reason, laminated glass must be used for the skylight panels and load-bearing beams.

The laminated glass panel can be supported either peripherally or point support.

Glass beams used in glass roofs

2. Glass Fins.

Modern glass fins are most widely used in point supported glass facade,especially when glass panels are ultra long and installed by top suspension support system.Multi layers laminated glass are used to increase the thickness of the glass, thereby increasing the width of the cross section of the glass fin.

stainless steel to connect glass fins

The upper and lower ends of the glass column are supported by hinges to withstand the dead weight, wind load and seismic force transmitted from the glass panel. The glass panel can be connected to the glass column by edge support or point support,Stainless steel plates can be used to connect several sections of glass columns into long columns.

all kinds of glass fins used in glass curtain wall

The large-area glass wall panels are supported by glass fins to form a transparent indoor space.

In 2015, the all-glass lobby of Hangzhou Zheshang Fortune Center created the world’s tallest glass fin record, with a glass column height of 28m. The glass column is divided into 3 sections, which are installed, positioned and connected on site. The glass column total thickness of 104.1mm. 5 pieces of 19mm ultra-white tempered glass and 4 layers 2.25mm SGP high-strength interlayer. The three sections of glass fins are connected on-site with stainless steel plates and stainless steel bolts.

hangzhou world record-28Meter height lobby

3. Oversized glass facade panels

Apple is the leader in applying oversized architectural glass panels on buildings,worldwide apple stores with glass boxes,glass structures used the world newest glass processing technology.

For thermal insulation consideration,the facade panels are always combine with high performance low-E coatings and been made into laminated insulated glass.

Hangzhou Apple store used 14500 height 3000 width glass panels

Hongkong Apple store used 18000 height 3000 width glass panels

4.Column-free glass wall

In 2015, Apple’s headquarters, which is shaped like a giant UFO was built in California, USA. The glass exterior wall adopts 14m X 3.3m ultra-large curved glass, toughened, insulating glass. The glass exterior wall is not supported by glass columns, and all the loads are borne by the glass panels alone.

Apple headquarter in USA

5.Glass Frames

Glass boxes is most seen in Apple stores,please check our previous post:Oversized laminated glass applied in Apple store to see the glass boxes,including the store in Fifth Avenus(New York), Round glass box (Shanghai).

All-glass buildings require a transparent glass frame. The beam and column are subject to great stress, so multi-layer toughened laminated glass should be used. Glass can be connected with stainless steel hardware,or structural sealants.

apple store in Shanghai-all glass structure

APPLE STORE

6.Glass stairs

In the glass building, the staircase naturally also adopts the glass structure. Laminated glass is used for the fence and pedals to ensure safety. The pedal is usually laminated with 3 pieces of glass, and the surface glass is usually anti-slip function to be realized with engraved surface.

Learn more:Modern Interior Glass Stairs & glass stair railings design

translucent anti slip glass stair in apple store

Conclusion：

Although glass has high strength, it is a brittle material after all, and the thin glass panels need careful strength and rigidity calculations when designing, and the lateral stability of the glass column should also be considered.

As a part of fast growing China glass processing industry,Morn would like to share what we know with every designers and architects,we also manufacture and supply structural glass to achieve your creative structural glass projects.

Download this article here:Rapid development of glass structures

Oversized laminated glass applied in Apple store

 If you think that iPhone and mac book are the most valuable things in the Apple store, then you are wrong!On the contrary, the mobile phone on the shelf is the cheapest.The oversized laminated glass,are usually the most expensive investment of the apple store.

The Apple Store is another important legacy that Jobs left behind at Apple. Now it is not only a symbol of a city’s prosperity, but also the most profitable offline retail store. How did this happen?

                                                      Oversized laminated glass applied in Apple store

At the beginning, Apple did not have its own independent store, but “resident” in a large electronic retail store like Best Buy.In the era when windows dominated the world, Apple’s booths were always arranged in the corners. They were expensive and not well-known, so naturally they were even more unpopular.

But Jobs was not convinced. In order to allow customers to better experience the difference between mac and windows, in 2001, Apple opened its first retail store.

But the following built apple store use large scale glass panels and the glass used became bigger and bigger,why?

The architectural design propose of Apple Store

What does “Future Technology Sense” look like? The imagination of most of us comes from science fiction movies: the future city with highly developed technology has two very different styles, one is the chaotic and dirty dystopian industrial city, and the other is the spotless and simple city.

As a mainstream international company, Apple will of course choose the latter. All of their flagship stores are in an almost minimalist modern style.

The style of Apple’s flagship store is minimalist, clean and modern.

With the application of jumbo size laminated glass,Apple’s store facade is more transparent and open, and it feels “clean”, and you can see the inside at a glance; although the glass is used to separate the entities, it really blurs the boundary between the inner and outer spaces. The all glass facade with structural glass solutions will offer more transparent interior areas.

Apple store glass is becoming bigger and bigger

In the past decades when laminated glass processing capability was limited and cannot make oversized laminated glass,Apple store used smaller glass,with the development of glass technology,new bigger and thicker glass are used and make the modern style more obvious.

In addition to the material, the size of the glass division and the structural system of the combination method are also very important. The technical craftsmanship of different eras also have a great influence on the visual effect.

Glass used in Apple Store Watford (UK) is oversized  low iron heat strengthened laminated glass ,size is 6082*2500mm.

In 2006, when the flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York was just opened, although Apple had achieved the ultimate in transparency and color of glass, due to the technical limitations of the curtain wall glass and structure at that time, it was impossible to make such a large and complete glass. Glass can only be divided to a certain extent; the structure is also more complicated and exposed.

After being refurbished in 2011, this Apple Store only used 3 pieces of glass on each side, and adopted seamless connection technology.The glass height used in this project is 9800mm.

The store in Shanghai used curved laminated glass,the glass combination is 12 +1.52SGP+12+1.52SGP+15+1.52SGP+ 12 +1.52SGP+12, 5 layer low iron curved tempered glass,sizes reach 12800*2600mm and glass radius is 5000mm.This extremely big curved glass can be finished by only 1-3 glass factories and Apple used the most advanced glass processing technology.

The largest store in Asia Hangzhou ,built in 2015, the glass height reach 15000mm.Unit glass price over USD150,000.Moreover, there are no columns on the ground, and there are only 11 glass panels on the façade, each with a width of about 3 meters, from the ground to the ceiling without any gaps.

As for choosing 11 pieces of glass instead of 9 or 12 pieces, it is to ensure that Apple’s LOGO can be placed on a complete piece of glass in the center; while ensuring that the use area is sufficient, the entire building ratio is about 1:2.Modern architecture pays more attention to practicality, standardization and visual personality, so it will not deliberately pursue the golden ratio. Instead, 1:2 is a more economical and suitable ratio for commercial spaces.

Apple chose to divide the suspended ceiling vertically, 11 pieces, and the seams between each piece corresponded to the division of the facade one-to-one, visually extending from the facade to the interior, increasing the sense of depth and rhythm of the interior space .

So we can get below summary of apple store design and location:

First, the appearance of buildings piled up with money, such as the patented glass curtain wall; Second, occupy the core position of urban landmarks;

finally, The design priority is adjusted to the highest, and the cost and everything have to be leaned back.the simple, stylish and uniform decoration is still the highest standard.

Other technology companies,are also simulated Apple’s idea when designing and building their stores:

The application of jumbo laminated glass,means high costs,both in construction and maintenance.

How expensive the glass is used in Apple store?

In 2007,the built of Beijing apple store,unit piece glass price was USD30000/PCS.thanks god that the glass was made in China,if glass made in German or Janpan,price will be 2-3 times higher.

As we mentioned before the glass used in 5 Avenue (NY) ,was replaced from 90pcs to only 15pcs,costs was USD6.7 million.Unit glass price is USD450,000.

Apple hired Glass Polish Ltd., a British glass polishing company, to maintain the glass. The company said that sometimes Apple will leave the work to them without even asking for the price, as long as they are in a perfect state at all times.

before the opening of the Covent Garden Apple retail store in the UK, they maintained the glass of the store. At that time, the glass was damaged during the construction process, and it cost $41,000 to replace the glass, but it only cost $8,500 when it was completed by them. They also cleaned up graffiti on a $15,000 glass at the Apple Store in Higuera Street, California. Before the opening of the Ridge Hill Apple Store in New York in 2012, Apple also needed a large-scale maintenance of the glass in the store.

    Why the glass is so expensive?

The main reasons for the high price is the laminated glass size and thickness.

Typical jumbo glass used in modern all glass facade

The main glass used are low iron tempered glass.

The low iron glass(or ultra clear glass) is relative to normal clear glass. The color of pure glass should be colorless and transparent like white crystal (the main components of both are silica), due to impurities in the glass ( iron inside will cause the color of the  glass to be greenish. The so-called ultra clear glass is to use some method to reduce the iron content in the glass so that the color of the glass is close to transparent and colorless. Its price is several times more expensive than normal clear glass.

Low-iron-glass-VS-clear-glass

Ultra long sizes:

Typical standard glass panels are 2440 *3660mm, and glass manufacturers produce bigger panels ,for example 4580*3300mm, 4880*3300mm.For special application,especially Auto 4S stores, the hotel lobby which size over 5000mm,need to customized and produce specially.With the development of glass producing technology,glass manufacturers is able to produce 20 meters ultra long glass.

As glass is fragile materials, ultra long glass means glass easier to get damaged or broken,whether it’s during logistics,handling,processing, this will cause price increase.

Ultra thick glass panels:

The ultra long glass panels for all glass facade means glass cannot be hanged but to be installed on the ground and rely on the glass itself to withstand its self weight ,as well as the huge wind load.The longer glass,the bigger risks,glass breakage will cause disasters ,especially in the city center areas.To ensure the glass safety,the glass must be made into multi layer SGP laminated glass.

The tearing strength of SGP interlayer is 5 times higher than PVB film,even if the glass breaks,the SGP can also stick the glass and form a temporary structure while keeping small bending deformation,it can withstand a certain amount of load and whole piece laminated glass won’t fall or deform.SGP interlayer has good edge stability, and low water content.The film is translucent and has good weather resistance,after years installation and application,the SGP film will keep translucent and won’t change to yellow color.The SGP yellowing coefficient is less than 1.5 while the PVB interlayer ones is 6-12,so SGP laminated glass is widely used in low iron laminated glass.

Multi layer SGP laminated glass will Maximum keep the glass safety and offering the most clear appearance.

High processing difficulty:The ultra long and ultra thick laminated glass means high processing capability, unit piece glass areas varies from 10sqm- 40sqm per piece,to ensure the 40sqm multi layer laminated glass perfect is really difficult and challenging works for every factory.

Every small problem may cause the processing failed,for example glass edge problems, dusts and bubbles after laminating process,glass flatness problem,and potential breakage during transportation and installation.

Lucily, with new advanced glass processing equipment,China Morn now is able to supply jumbo laminated glass for special glass application,our processing capability is:

Tempered glass: Max Size:13000 *3300mm.

Laminated glass:Max Size:13000 *3300mm.

Insulated glass:Max Size:13000 *3300mm.

Curved glass: Max size 5000*2700mm.

Jumbo size laminated glass is no longer monopoly industry,with our joining, oversized laminated glass can be much cheaper than world class glass manufacturers,it can be applied on more and more symbol projects.Kindly contact us if you got any projects that require oversized laminated glass tempered glass.

Download this article here:Oversized laminated glass applied in Apple store