Six Trends In Commercial Jumbo Glass

What is Jumbo glass?

Jumbo glass typically ranges from widths of 84” to 130” and heights from 144” to 300”, which demands massive production equipment. Recent advances in glass manufacturing and superior coatings have made it possible to produce large sheets of glass with added performance benefits and a wide range of aesthetic options.

Six Trends in Commercial Jumbo Glass

Why jumbo glass continues to grow in popularity in commercial designs and how frameless impact jumbo glass has entered the hurricane market.

When you think of some of the world’s most renowned buildings, they most likely involve large expanses of architectural glass. Architectural glass can provide several benefits, including increased aesthetics and energy efficiency. In addition, studies have proven that the natural daylight that enters a building offers many health benefits and improves your overall mood. Using jumbo glass is a popular design trend that continues to grow in popularity and projects throughout the country. Most impressively, jumbo glass is making its way into the hurricane market, notorious for its limited glass sizes due to the strict impact-resistant test standards that govern it.

Here are six design trends with jumbo glass.

1.Pushing the Limits

The demand for glass is not only increasing in quantity but also size. Over the last decade, there has been an increased desire for more glass, bigger glass, and more transparent glass. Jumbo glass allows architects to energize and illuminate interiors with natural light and impress at first sight with larger-than-life designs.

2.Minimizing Visual Barriers

Due to the greater presence of oversized glass, the material has become essential to a building’s aesthetic success. This trend calls for larger panes of glass while minimizing the impacts of framing. Therefore, designers and engineers strive to create spaces without visual interruption. People are drawn to a smaller visible glass to frame ratio, which allows for clear and unobstructed views.

3.Natural Lighting

One of the most significant values of jumbo glass is how people respond to a maximized presence of light and interaction with the outdoors. Building owners and developers continue to look for bigger, unobstructed views with better daylighting and energy efficiency. An oversized floor-to-ceiling window façade can help create a clean, open, and contemporary space. Jumbo glass allows you to redefine design possibilities by dissolving the boundaries of connection between the indoors and outdoors.

4.Energy Efficiency

Glass is a sustainable, fully recyclable material that provides excellent environmental benefits, such as contributing to mitigating climate change and saving precious natural resources. In many of its architectural applications, glass can help save energy and cut costs. This is especially evident in insulating glass for windows and facades. Glass is also used to generate renewable energy through solar-thermal and photovoltaic applications. 

5. The Cool Factor

Let’s face it, big glass is just cool! Huge glass walls and structures can create the ultimate contemporary, sophisticated architectural look, be it residential or commercial applications. You don’t have to look any further than a handful of Apple stores around the world to see what jumbo glass can do. The brand that defines cool has some of the most iconic glass structures and entrances for its stores. Large, oversize glass in architectural applications has become synonymous with ultra-modern, contemporary designs. 

6. Jumbo Glass Enters the Hurricane Market

Although jumbo glass is no stranger to the U.S. architectural market, it is a reasonably new entry in the hurricane market or regions that require impact-resistance standards such as Florida. Typically these large oversized glazing units have become popular in commercial storefront or curtain wall applications. However, to achieve these expansive systems, the metal framing can be pretty significant.

Eight Core Factors to Consider When Choosing Glass Size

1. Where does oversized glass or jumbo glass come from?

It was recently announced that two float manufacturers are opening jumbo sized float plants with an associated coater in North America: Guardian in Carleton, MI and Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG) in Wichita Falls, TX.

This is welcome news. Finally, soft coats, domestic, in jumbo size 130 x 204 will be available. Larger than jumbo sizes can be obtained from European or Asian float plants with all the associated costs and practices in terms of shipping, packing and handling. This route can prove to be extremely expensive, given the special care requirements for these products.

2. Structural integrity and bearing loads.

Bigger or thicker does not necessarily mean stronger, but it definitely means heavier. Consider what processes will be utilized on an oversized piece of glass: tempering, edging, laminating, bending, etc. A tempered laminate is not safer than an annealed laminate, although it has better bearing characteristics. Every process must be carefully studied and prepared for. 

3. Transport limitations before processing.

Regular glass is transported in North America on specialized trailers with a maximum limitation of 44,000 lbs., which corresponds to about 11 stoce packs. Jumbo glass transport necessitates lowboy trailers, with usually four stoce packs to a trailer. These trailer types are defined by the width of the glass packs (130” for jumbo = size of the ribbon coming off the float) being transported at a 4-degree angle, allowing tractor trailers to pass under regular bridges. Larger than jumbo glass requires special transport, which may not always be possible due to existing road infrastructure and carries a tremendous price tag associated with it. Shipping from overseas may involve on deck shipping.

4. Packing and handling.

Serious attention should be given to the crating, loading and unloading process, including storage and lifting systems. Similar issues apply after processing the glass if the size remains nearly the same.

5. Processing capabilities limited by equipment.

More measures to take into consideration are the size of tempering furnace, autoclaves, etc. Food for thought: the longest IG unit in the world, 18 meters long, and nearly 60 feet can be produced on a Bystronic line.

Laminating process can be limited by the maximum width of the interlayer. Interlayer in rolls like Kuraray PVB, are available in 130” width, SentryGlas sheets are at maximum, 232” x 99”. There are tricks to process two layers next to each other, usually at the detriment of optical quality. 

6. Limitations on handling during installation.

Do your glaziers have the equipment to install these oversized lites? Huge lites on very tall buildings require careful planning in many areas such as safety, lifting, cranes, to name a few.

7. Leave the specialties to the specialists.

Oversized glass needs to be imported. Specialized companies like Sedak can process glass overseas up to 49 ft x 11 ft approx. In North America companies like Agnora, RIG ,Viracon, etc., can process glass usually up to 130 inches x 230 or 300 inches.

8. Jumbo coated glass advantages

Can be domestically sourced and transported.

Aesthetically more attractive to both architects and end consumers.

Can be processed on equipment with a reasonable investment.

Depending on the optimization and mix: 2 to 4 percent yield savings on glass, which is huge in e.g. commercial IG’s.

Wallkingdon Glass offers not only one of the broadest selections of architectural, decorative, and specialty glass, but we also offer services that allow our clients to do more with glass. If you want to get high quality glass and the cost effective solutions while keeping quality to highest level, send an email to enquiry@wallkingdonglass.com, we will have the valuable input and creativity of glass design experts to help you.