Heat-treated glass provides both the durability and safety found in many of the world’s most visually breathtaking buildings.

But manufacturing heat-treated glass is a complex and multi-step process. This video provides an explanation of how insulating glass units (IGUs), spandrel glass, tempered glass and heat-strengthened glass are manufactured, courtesy of United Plate Glass in West Butler, PA.

Here's an explanation of how bent and laminated glass is made, courtesy of Standard Bent Glass in East Butler, PA.

First, large sheets of glass are scored into a range of end-use sizes. Then, these individual lites of glass are edged on a vertical line and sent to a large industrial washer. Next, they either get laminated or bent.

A Partnership Mother Nature Would Approve Of: Award-Winning Bird-Friendly AviProtek^® and Solarban^® Solar Control Low-e Glass

Each year, more than 600 million birds die from collisions with glass in the United States alone. Although bird-friendly building regulations continue to increase in North America, glazing options have been limited.

Here’s a quick demonstration that will give you an understanding of low-emissivity or low-e glass.

There are a wide range of glasses to choose from to meet the needs of any project. Spandrel glass is one such option.

Unlike vision glass, which is meant to be transparent, spandrel glass is designed to be opaque in order to help hide features between the floors of a building, including vents, wires, slab ends and mechanical equipment.

When designing with glass, there are a wide range of options to choose from to create a truly unique project. One option in particular–reflective glass–has some significant aesthetic and performance benefits. Even when transparent glass is in vogue, there are specific applications when tinted, reflective glass can be the superior choice. In fact, there are even reflective glasses that provide the solar control benefits of low-e coatings.

Accommodating for wind and snow is one of the important upfront considerations in the design and specification process. There is a multi-step process that must be undertaken to help ensure the glass in your project is able to resist these loads.

While glass looks great aesthetically, it also has to meet high performance standards. An important part of performance relates to acoustics, whether it’s large, dramatic panels used for the exterior of a building, or smaller panels used to create interior partitions. When designing a project there are a number of sound-related factors you need to understand and take into consideration, including: