Saint-Gobain Glass is to launch SGG Planitherm Total 1.3 – the first ‘single stock’, toughenable and durable high performance low-E glass. Production of the new glass begins this month on the UK’s first magnetron coating line, housed in a £15 million facility opened on 22rd July at the site of the company’s float glass plant in Eggborough, North Yorkshire.

Described as a revolutionary soft coat low-E glass, SGG Planitherm Total 1.3 is supplied in a single version that can be used in either annealed or toughened form, has a durable easy-to-process coating, an optimum U-value of 1.3 W/m2K and a neutral appearance in both reflection and transmission. (1.3 applies to a 4-16-4 unit, argon gas filled to the 90 per cent CE Norm, compared to the 100% figure some competitors quote in their product names.)

Derek Dragten, Marketing Manager of Saint-Gobain Glass, said: ‘SGG Planitherm Total 1.3 is the first Low-E glass to offer many of the benefits of traditional hard coat products together with the superior performance and aesthetics that the market has come to expect of our soft coated Planitherm range.

‘We’ve changed the composition of the various metal oxide layers in order to make the coating more durable’, he explained. ‘Traditional soft coat products require an annealed and a toughenable version. Planitherm Total 1.3 mimics a hard coat by being a single product which can be used both in annealed and toughened form.’

SGG Planitherm Total 1.3 will replace SGG’s Planitherm 1.3, which is already in production at Eggborough. Soft coatings are cheaper to produce than hard coats, and this new product, easier to handle and more resistant to marks and scratches, will encourage more IG manufacturers to switch to soft coats.

Continental Europe demands a higher performance still, and Planitherm Future N 1.1 is another soft coat produced at the new magnetron line, in annealed and toughenable versions. ‘The next step for us will be to produce a Planitherm Total 1.1 to replace the Future N’, added Mr Dragten.

The magnetron coater was officially opened by Patrick Roux-Vaillard, General Delegate Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland. The opening ceremony was attended by over 100 people including a group of senior directors from Saint-Gobain’s Paris headquarters led by Claude-Alain Tardy, Managing Director of Saint-Gobain Glass Europe. A large number of key customers were also present and were given a tour of the plant to see the magnetron coater in action before watching M. Roux-Vaillard toast the new facility.

Unusually, the children of Coater Project Manager Antonio Malats are ‘Godparents’ of the new facility, following a tradition which saw Mr Tardy’s children named as guardians of the Eggborough float plant. Readers will be relieved to learn that grown-ups are at the controls.

For further info email: glassinfo.uk@saint-gobain-glass.com

Source

Glass Age