Laminated Glass Products

Southwall's California Series laminated glass invites the architectural use of sunlight while selectively reducing unwanted heat gain. The demand by architects, builders, owners, and occupants today is for natural daylighting with reduced cooling loads. Conventional monolithic glazing with clear glass allows the use of sunlight to meet daylighting needs. However, clear glass allows unwanted infrared heat gain. Although tinted or "heat-absorbing" glass reduces heat gain through absorption, it also reduces visible light transmission. Solar energy that is absorbed rather than reflected is re-radiated into the building and adds to the heat gain. Southwalls' California Series provides monolithic glazing that reflects unwanted infrared heat while allowing visible light inside.

California Series products sandwich an XIR^® "heat rejecting" coating between two layers of PVB and glass (see figure at right). The finished product has a unique, low-reflective appearance, while allowing greater than 70% visible light transmission but reflecting more than 50% of invisible heat. Since this technology reduces the heating effect caused by absorption, greater design flexibility for energy-efficient glazing is available. California Series also has the benefits of reduced sound transmission, increased security, and ultraviolet protection (99.5% blockage).

California Series can be used in vertical, sloped, or overhead glazing applications. From curtain wall (captured or structurally glazed) to monumental skylights, this technology offers expanded choices of energy-efficient glazing. California Series can be fabricated in nearly all flat configuration or architecturally curved. Glazed monolithically or combined into sealed insulating glass units, XIR film can be laminated with annealed, heat strengthened, or tempered clear glass, or combined with tinted PVB and/or glass.

Above: Catfish Town
Architect: Robert M. Coleman & Partners
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Glass: California Series^® SeaFoam Clear 

Above: Kuwait Tower
Location: Kuwait
Glass: California Series