Glazing

Looking for the best glass options for your windows? Whether you want to let in more natural light or improve energy efficiency, it's important to know the best type of glass to use for your new windows. Without the right glass, rooms can overheat in the summer and feel very cold in the winter. This can increase heating and cooling costs all year round and make your home a less than comfortable place to be.

Double glazing package

Double glazing protects against the cold and retains heat. They reduce draughts and represent a huge step forward compared to single glazing, where a single sheet of glass acts as a barrier between the inside and outside world.

triple-glazed windows

Triple glazing package

Triple glazing insulates better than double glazing, reducing energy bills and keeping your home warmer in winter. Better heat retention is particularly useful if you want to replace single or old, inefficient double glazing. Triple glazing is more effective at reducing condensation build-up on windows.

frosted glass

Frosted/milky glass

Frosted glass is distinguished from other types of panes by the following characteristics: it is milky, opaque, concealing and easy to clean.

Satin glass has an etched matt appearance that provides excellent light transmission and a high level of privacy. Its smooth, durable surface makes it ideal for use in doors, windows and partitions.

Safety glass

Toughened glass, also known as safety glass, is the smartest choice for windows and other glass structures in your home. It is heated and then cooled very quickly during the manufacturing process. This rapid temperature change makes it about four times stronger than untreated glass.

When toughened glass breaks, it shatters into small pieces with frosted edges. In comparison, untreated glass will break with relatively little force and shatter into dangerous shards.

Glazing with increased resistance to burglary and attack is used when we want to protect a building and, at the same time, keep the aesthetics of the façade intact (we eliminate bars, shutters or roller blinds). Security glass is laminated glass.

Soundproof glass

Is the noise outside driving you crazy? If the answer is yes, the best solution to your problem is sound-absorbing glass. Unlike its normal variant, sound-absorbing glass is a staple in homes and commercial environments. It's a boon for anyone who wants peace and quiet at home.

Sound-absorbing glass creates an almost impenetrable barrier between sound and the ears. It absorbs the mechanical energy of the sound wave and captures it. Such a material can block 90 to 95% of most sounds, except for a few frequencies.

Fire resistant glazing

They can act as burglar-proofing, noise protection, thermal insulation and reduce solar gain.

The continuing trend towards the increasing use of glass in external and internal partitions has the effect of giving buildings an aesthetically pleasing appearance and blurring the barriers between the building and the environment. In many cases, however, glazed partitions must meet fire regulations to prevent the spread of fire and to allow safe evacuation of building occupants. Meeting these often involves the use of fire-resistant glass.

Warm frame

Glazing with warm distance frame

Warm spacer is a type of spacer used in insulating glazing. It separates the glass panes in double or triple glazing or curtain walls and seals the air gap between them.

As much as 80% of the energy loss through a window occurs at its edge. Warm Edge products aim to minimise this energy loss. Warm Edge technology refers to the edge design of double, triple or quadruple glazing units, which conduct less heat or cold than conventional windows and standard double glazing units. Standard double glazing or sealed double glazing units are constructed with an aluminium spacer that keeps the glass separate.

Until now, aluminium spacer bars have been commonly used in insulating glass units as a spacer.

However, given the ever-improving thermal conductivity values of window frames and glazing, aluminium frames have proved to be a weak point in this design.

Ornamental glass

The increased use of glass as a modern decorative material leads to the need to meet the specific requirements that are placed on designers and architects. Ornamental glass should allow light to enter a room, increasing the warmth and depth of its function while maintaining privacy.

The ornamental glass offered by GM PLAST fulfils these wishes perfectly, currently taking on ever newer faces. The right choice of glass structure gives us the possibility of strengthening or weakening the degree of transparency.

Glazing with muntins

Muntin bars offered by GM PLAST are an attractive creative means - both for those who love tradition and those who prefer new techniques of shaping architecture. Interestingly composed windows with muntin bars gain a new and enriched appearance.

Muntin bars are available in a wide range of RAL colours (also two-tone). GM PLAST offers muntin bars in widths of 8, 18, 26 and 45 mm. These elements can be bent into arches or circles and can also be joined at different angles.

Which glazing to choose?

If you've ever stood in front of an inefficient window in the winter (or summer) and felt cool (or hot) air coming directly through the glass, you know how important efficient windows are. The right glass can help you make your windows work for you - between multi-pane options and energy-efficient coatings, a professional can help you choose windows that will perform at optimum efficiency all year round.

The use of single-glazed windows is a thing of the past. As energy conservation is now a major concern for most homeowners, almost all modern windows are at least double-glazed. This means that each window has two panes of glass separated by a thin spacer. This space can also be filled with an insulating gas. These are referred to as double-glazed units

Double glazed units can also be triple glazed - in other words, a third sheet of glass is added to the window unit. Triple glazed windows are more expensive than double glazed windows. However, they offer both better sound and thermal insulation.

The design of the spacer connecting two or three panes of glass is also important for the overall performance of the IGU. In the past, metal was the primary material used in spacers. However, the conductivity of the metal posed problems and such spacers caused condensation and ice crystals to form.

To reduce the likelihood of moisture becoming trapped between the panes, spacers are now made of treated metal or structural foam combined with a desiccant to remove moisture trapped in the space during the manufacturing process.

Double-glazed windows used to be filled with air. But heat and cold easily penetrated the windows, reducing the effect of double glazing. Replacing the air with a gas of lower conductivity reduces heat transfer, improving the performance of the glazing and lowering the heat transfer coefficient of the double glazing, or heat transfer rate.

Most insulating glass units produced today are filled with argon or krypton. Both gases are non-toxic, non-reactive, clear and odourless.