Other design choices are to use different colored vertical or horizontal striping or banding with harmonizing or contrasting colors of spandrel material to create a different visual statement. Ceramic frit enamels fused to the inside surface of clear, tinted or pyrolitic reflective glasses offer the designer a great deal of flexibility. These opaque panels can harmonize with the appearance of the vision areas to subtly or boldly band the exterior skin of the building. The ceramic frit enamel coated glass spandrel panels allow creative color selection for nearly any building type. Glass spandrel panels installed in a lightweight aluminum framing system also are ideal for recladding opaque walls of older structures; modernizing them to upgrade property values while adding aesthetic appeal.

HEAT TREATMENT

The spandrel area acts like a solar collector with no heat removal system. Glass temperatures in excess of  150ºF are not uncommon in reflective spandrel glass areas. Spandrel glass, therefore, needs to be heat treated (heat strengthened or fully tempered) to resist the thermal stresses which will build up in the glass. Heat strengthening is preferred to fully tempering for spandrels because heat strengthening provides sufficient protection against thermal stress and avoids the possibility of spontaneous breakage from small inclusions which can occasionally happen with fully tempered glass. Also if the glass should break heat strengthened glass is more likely to remain in the opening, whereas, fully tempered glass will evacuate the opening immediately upon breaking. Because spandrel glass has been heat treated it cannot be cut, ground or drilled after fabrication.

There are several methods of opacifying glass for use in spandrel panels.

• Film Opacification
• Shadow Box Opacification
• Insulating Glass Opacification
• Ceramic Frit Opacification
• OPACI-COAT